EUGENE, Ore. – The University of Denver men's tennis team (6-2, 0-0 Summit) came up short in its first match of the weekend with a 0-7 loss at Oregon on Friday evening.
 
DU was without its No. 2 singles player and No. 69-ranked junior Raffello Papajcik in both singles and doubles to begin its four-match road trip.
 
Doubles:
After shuffling its doubles lineup without Papajcik available, DU kept things tight at the start of play. The team of senior Daniel Sancho Arbizu and freshman Theo Coats took over the No. 1 doubles spot and stayed within a game of Oregon, finishing at 4-4 when the match was abandoned.
 
Freshman Mark Neyelov made his collegiate debut, filling in at No. 2 doubles and teaming up with graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox. Like their teammates in the No. 2 spot, Neyelov and Robb-Wilcox were within a game of their opponents until going down a break at 3-5 that proved to be all Oregon needed for the win.
 
Junior Ryoma Mishiro returned to play for DU after two matches away, playing with freshman Samuel Rovai for the first time in dual match play to complete the lineup, but the duo dropped their match at the No. 3 slot.
 
Singles:
In singles, only Sancho Arbizu retained his normal spot in the Denver lineup at the No. 1 spot. Without Papajcik at No. 2 singles, DU shifted its normal Nos. 3-6 competitors up one spot each while also welcoming back Mishiro at No. 6 singles.
 
Oregon would win all six matches in two sets but not necessarily in a straight-forward manner in all of them. At No. 1 singles and in the final match to finish, Sancho Arbizu forced a second-set tiebreak and was just two points away from getting to a deciding breaker.
 
Senior Rikuto Yamaguchi took the No. 2 spot for the first time in his Denver career and held an easy break to begin his match but was unable to secure the win.
 
After dropping their first sets, both Robb-Wilcox and Mishiro came out with immediate breaks to begin their second sets, though both would ultimately lose, 5-7.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team plays in Eugene again on Saturday, February 8, taking on UTSA in a neutral-site match at 12 p.m. PT/1 p.m. MT.
 
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