The UW women’s tennis team came up short in yesterday’s match against Oregon, falling 5-2 just two days after their second victory of the season. With such a short interval between matches, the injuries and illnesses that have kept the team from reaching its full potential continued to nag the Huskies.

“Without a long rest, these injuries are going to be nagging,” coach Jill Hultquist said. “Girls have been playing through them. It’s a long season, but we keep fighting.”

One positive note was the performance of Mathilde Cor at No. 1 singles. She defeated Oregon’s Dominika Dieskova 6-2, 6-1. Cor, who was sidelined with mononucleosis for much of the season, has won her past four matches.

“Mathilde is getting much stronger, which is great,” Hultquist said. “Today was the first day that she said she felt really awake and not tired. She had a great win against a girl who’s been ranked pretty highly.”

While Dieskova is unranked for singles, she was No. 26 in the International Tennis Association’s preseason rankings.

Co-captain Tara Simpson provided the Huskies with their only other point with her 6-3, 6-3 victory at the No. 3 singles position. After starting off the season 0-12, Simpson is now on a two-match winning streak.

Freshman Joyce Ardies also came close to victory at No. 2 singles, leading 5-2 in the first set, but her opponent was able to rally back to take the match 7-5, 6-0.

This is the first of two meetings between the Washington and Oregon teams this season, with only the second counting toward Pac-10 conference standings. The second match will take place in Oregon April 22. While the Huskies may not have been able to defeat Oregon today, Hultquist feels that their chances will be much better in the next match.

“We had opportunities today, and next time I think there will definitely be places where we can get a few more points,” she said. “Joyce was playing really well today, and I think next time she will want revenge. At four, five and six singles the Oregon girls were better than us today, and in the doubles point we had opportunities. We just need to be able to close out the big points.”

Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.