Gallardo Seals Duck Victory Over Portland, 4-3

The Ducks return to action on Saturday when they face Sacramento State at 3:00 PM in the Student Tennis Center.

Francisco Gallardo sealed the Duck victory with a 7-5, 6-3 win at the No. 4 position. Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - The odd position matches would be fall the right way for the Ducks (4-1, 0-0), but they would need a hard-fought victory at an even position to pull out the 4-3 dual meet victory over the Portland Pilots, Wednesday night at the Student Tennis Center.

The two tightest matches of the night would come at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions with the Ducks needing to win one of the two and Francisco Gallardo would seal the victory for the Ducks first, defeating Joel Kincaid at No. 4, 7-5, 6-3.

Freshman Geoff Embry continued his torrid start to the season, dropping only four games to Charlie Yemm at the No. 5 position, in winning 6-0, 6-4.

The Phoenix, Arizona native was the first Duck off the court with his rout and has only lost 14 games total in the young dual season while compiling a 4-0 record.

Alex Cornelissen has also shown himself to be everything the coaching staff thought when they brought him in from Lauwe, Belgium, as he rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Alex Strom.

The freshman, who has started at the No. 1 position in all but one match thus far, moved his record to 4-1 in dual matches.

After Eric Pickard dropped the No. 6 match, the dual was tied 2-2 with three matches left undecided until Mike Myrhed broke the tie with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Colby Jager at the No. 3 position, which set up Gallardo and Verdasco to decide the match for the Ducks.

Marcos Verdasco fell to Filip Zivkovic, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the No. 2 position match to finish the night, but luckily the Ducks had the match in hand.

The Ducks were put at the disadvantage when they lost the doubles point to begin the evening and were placed in the position of having to win 4 of the six singles matches.

Gallardo and Verdasco were the only Duck pair to pick up a victory in doubles, besting Strom and Scott Kennel, 8-5

Myrhed and Weichert rallied from 2-7 down and had an advantage, but fell 8-5.

Cornelissen was broken at 7-7, but he and Embry rallied to break Jager and send the match to tiebreak.

Unfortunately they were unable to close out the doubles point for the Ducks, falling 7-4 in the extra frame.

Oregon 4, Portland 3

Doubles:

No. 1: Colby Jager/Filip Zivkovic (Portland) def. Geoff Embry/Alexander Cornelissen (Oregon), 9-8 (4)

No. 2: Marcos Verdasco/ Francisco Gallardo (Oregon) def. Scott Kennell/Alex Strom (Portland), 8-5

No. 3: Evan Schleining/Joel Kincaid (Portland) def. Mike Myrhed/Stephen Wiechert (Oregon), 8-5

Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1

Portland wins the doubles point.

Singles:

No. 1: Cornelissen (Oregon) def. Strom (Portland), 6-0, 6-3

No. 2: Zivkovic (Portland) def. Verdasco (Oregon), 7-6 (5), 6-4

No. 3: Myrhed (Oregon) def. Jager (Portland), 6-3, 6-4

No. 4: Gallardo (Oregon) def. Kincaid (Portland), 7-5, 6-3

No. 5: Embry (Oregon) def. Charlie Yemm (Portland), 6-0, 6-4

No. 6: Schleining (Portland) def. Pickard (Oregon), 6-3, 6-1

Order of Finish: 5, 1, 6, 3, 4, 2

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