Big Red Battle, Fall 3-4 to Oregon
https://huskers.com/news/2024/02/17/big-red-battle-fall-3-4-to-oregon
Eugene, Ore. – The Nebraska men’s tennis team (6-4, 0-0 Big Ten) battled, but fell short against Oregon (8-2, 0-0 Pac 12) in its Saturday afternoon match. The match came down to a three-set thriller at the No. 3 singles slot, and despite the team loss, yielded a Husker win over nationally ranked doubles Ducks.
To start off the eighth all-time matchup between the Huskers and the Ducks, Court One took a dominant lead. No. 1 doubles duo Anton Shepp and Nic Wiedenhorn only dropped two games in their victory over Oregon’s nationally ranked duo, No. 31 Quinn Vandecasteele and Matthew Burton, winning, 6-2. On Court Three, Leo Linquet and Shunya Maruyama had a 2-2 start, but dropped their set to Robertson and Shugar, 4-6. With the doubles point on the line, No. 2 doubles duo Lars Johann and Calvin Mueller came back from being down 2-5 to take the set win in a tie-break, 7-6(7). The Court Two win clinched the doubles point for NU and was the duo’s sixth win this spring.
In singles, No. 113 Shepp cleaned up on Court Two quickly, taking down David Cierny, 6-3, 6-1. At No. 4 singles, Johann wasn’t far behind, pushing the match score to NU 3, OU 0, with his 6-3, 7-5 win over Matthew Burton. On Court One, Mueller faced No. 93 Quinn Vandecasteele in his fourth match of the season against a ranked opponent. The No. 1 matchup went to three sets, but Mueller eventually fell to Vandecasteele, 4-6, 6-1, 1-6. Next to finish was No. 6 singles Nikolay Sysoev and Lenn Luemkemann. Sysoev kept it close in the first set, but lost the tie break, and then the second set, losing 6(5)-7, 4-6. It was Sysoev’s first singles loss of the spring. No. 5 singles Linquet had two close sets against Vanderstappen but was defeated 5-7, 6(5)-7, which pushed the match score to 3-3. Court Three would decide the match, and Maruyama and Vlad Breazu put on a three-set thriller. Maruyama took the first set 6-4 and fought from down 2-5 in the second set to push to a tiebreak at 6-6. Maruyama lost the second set, but battled until the end, losing 6(10)-7. Breazue finished strong, clinching the win for the Ducks, as Maruyama fell 6-4, 6(10)-7, 3-6.
Although the Huskers fell, their 6-4 start is a program best since 2019, and NU’s doubles teams came to play. With Johann and Mueller’s comeback win on Court Two, Mueller and the No. 2 doubles slot, improved to 8-2 in the spring. At No. 1, Shepp and Wiedenhorn secured a ranked win over No. 31 Vandecasteele and Burton, and moved to 5-3 in the spring. Shepp, who was recently ranked nationally at No. 113 in singles, got his ninth win of the spring to hold a 9-1 mark and is 11-3 overall.
