Boise State falls at Oregon

Saturday, January 15

Eugene, Ore.

12 p.m. MT

Boise State

Oregon

1/15/2022 2:46:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

EUGENE, Ore. – The Boise State men's tennis team fell 7-0 Saturday afternoon in Eugene, Ore., to the Oregon Ducks of the Pacific-12 Conference. Oregon swept the three doubles matches, then followed by claiming victory in the six singles contests. Boise State was led by Ryo Minakata, Caden Moortgat and James Van Herzeele who all rallied from set one defeats in singles to force their matches into third set tiebreakers.

The match began with the Ducks sweeping the doubles contests versus the Broncos to take the early 1-0 lead in the match score. Simon Arca Costas and Jan Lucca Marquardt led the Blue and Orange battling hard on court two against Jesper Klov-Nilsson and Ivailo Keremedchiev but came up short 6-4 in the end.

Down one team point heading into the singles competition, the Broncos needed to secure four of the six contests to claim the match.

Oregon opened singles with a pair of straight victories on courts one and three to go up 3-0, moving within one of clinching the team competition. Ultimately, the match did go the way of the Ducks as Quinn Vandecasteele clinched the match when he downed Bronco freshman Pedro Liborio in two sets 6-2, 6-3 on court two to give Oregon the decisive four points needed for the win.

With the match decided, Boise State's remaining three players, Caden Moortgat, James Van Herzeele and Ryo Minakata, refused to give up. All three rallied from set one defeats to force their matches into third set tiebreakers.

Minakata was the first of the three to finish as he was edged 11-9 by Avi Shugar in the 10-point pro set tiebreaker on court six to fall 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (11-9).

After dropping set one 6-4, Van Herzeele rallied to win set two 6-3. He then fell to Oregon's Luke Vandecasteele in the third set tiebreaker 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-4).

Moortgat was the last Bronco to finish. He came back to take the second frame in a tiebreaker 11-9, then came up short versus Keremedchiev in the third, falling 6-0, 6-7 (11-9), 1-0 (10-5).

The loss moved Boise State to 1-1 on the season with a trip to Seattle, Wash., next on its schedule to face the Washington Huskies on Monday.

Match Box Score
Oregon (1-0) def. Boise State (1-1) 7-0

Doubles Results (Order: 1,3,2)