The men’s tennis team had a rough experience at the ITA Kick-off Weekend.
After starting the tournament with a hard fought loss to No. 44 Miami, the Wildcats’ weekend in Texas came to a sickening conclusion.
Set to face Mississippi State yesterday, the team was forced to default after coming down with a virus.
“”The team got slammed with a nasty virus,”” head coach Tad Berkowitz told Arizona Athletics. “”Most of the team was up all night. This has never happened in my coaching career. I feel terrible for the guys. There was no way in good conscious that myself or (assistant coach) Tom (Lloyd) could put these guys out on the court.””
The weekend ended poorly, but in Saturday’s match against the Hurricanes the Wildcats kept the match close throughout, eventually falling 4-3 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas. While no loss can be considered “”good,”” there were certainly a lot of positives to take out of the match.
“”We played hard but Miami just got us at the end,”” Berkowitz said. “”This match will only make us tougher as the season continues on.””
Stud freshman Giacomo Miccini finally made his Wildcat debut after sitting out the opening match against the University of California, Riverside. Miccini opened the match in the No. 1 doubles position alongside senior Jay Goldman. The duo played the Hurricanes’ Keith Crowley and Christian Blocker, and in a match that at one point was tied 7-7, the Hurricanes pulled out the 8-6 victory. Luckily, the Wildcats ended up winning the doubles point with wins from Andres Carrasco and Borja Malo, and Jason Zafiros and Andre Vidaller.
The Wildcats did not prove so lucky in the singles portion, dropping four matches to the Hurricanes. In his first singles match as a Wildcat, Miccini lost both sets by scores of 6-4.
The doubles point, alongside victories by Zafiros and Goldman, would be all the points the Wildcats would get in the 4-3 loss.
On the women’s side, the Wildcats traveled to California to play both Cal State Northridge and Loyola Marymount University this past weekend. The Wildcats defeated both schools in California this time last season. One year later, the result was the same. The Wildcats defeated Loyola Marymount on Friday 4-3 and followed that up with a 5-2 victory over Cal State Northridge. The Wildcats travel back to California on Friday to face Fresno State.
