The No. 35 Arizona men’s tennis team is back on its feet after a successful weekend at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.
The Wildcats defeated the No. 10 UCLA Bruins for the first time in school history on Sunday, after being shut out by the No. 3 defending national champions USC on Friday.
Arizona, (13-9, 2-4 Pacific 10 Conference) which before yesterday’s contest had a 0-74 record in school history against the Bruins, rallied to a 4-3 win to fend off UCLA (13-6, 3-2), even after their 7-0 loss against USC (19-2, 5-0) two days prior.
“”The guys made history today, and I couldn’t be more proud of them,”” head coach Tad Berkowitz said. “”They did what they able to do to win, they stepped up when they needed to and they played the big points.””
On Friday at USC, however, things didn’t look so cheery.
On both the doubles and singles courts, Arizona’s hard-fought efforts were overshadowed by an elite Trojan team, but Berkowitz and company didn’t hang their heads.
“”USC played very, very well, but (Sunday) was a whole new day and anything could happen.”” Berkowitz told his team after the loss.
“”If you have a couple tough losses, keep lacing up your shoes and put yourself in that position (to win),”” he added. “”You just need to have the confidence in your abilities to get it done.””
And they got it done.
Junior Jay Goldman, the Wildcats’ No. 1 player, was matched up against the Bruins’ No. 52-ranked Matt Brooklyn, and despite losing the first set, Goldman rallied to beat Brooklyn, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
In other singles action, Arizona anchors Borja Malo and Ravid Hazi both captured wins in their matches.
“”They’re a group of guys that have a lot of confidence in each other and themselves,”” Berkowitz said. “”We’ve always talked about that all year, if all of our guys can come together on the same day, then we can do some great things.””
With Goldman and Andres Arango’s victory on the doubles court, the Wildcats were finally able to enjoy a long awaited victory, edging the Bruins 4-3.
“”Today was a perfect day to see what we can do against a top-10 team “” Berkowitz said. “”We just needed to get out there and play free and see what happened at the end of the match.””
Women succumb to the sting of Southern California
After solid wins in Los Angeles last weekend against California State Univeristy, Northridge, and Loyola Marymount, the return to Southern California wasn’t quite as welcoming for the No. 56 Arizona women’s tennis team, who faced a pair of shut out losses against the No. 17 USC Trojans and the No. 8 UCLA Bruins this weekend.
Although they made valiant efforts, the Wildcats (12-8, 1-6 Pacific 10 Conference) failed to get a second conference win against the dominant Bruins (18-3, 5-1) and Trojans (13-7, 5-1) who came out with a strong will to win.
“”It was a rough weekend for us,”” said UA head coach Vicky Maes. “”We couldn’t really get anything going our way. The girls battled hard and had game points in almost every single game, yet couldn’t convert them. Against top teams like that, you get punished. They don’t give you second chances.””
On Friday against the Bruins, the Wildcats failed to get anything going on the doubles court, losing all three matches, 8-0, 8-1, and 8-3.
Things didn’t look any better for Arizona in singles action either as both No. 105 Natasha Marks and No. 84 Sarah Landsman fell to No. 5 Yasmin Schnack and No. 31 Andrea Remynse, respectively.
“”They took it to us in the doubles and never looked back,”” Maes said. “”We battled hard but they just played too tough.””
The next day at USC, the Wildcats again failed to earn the doubles point, but the duo of Marks and Debora Castany secured a tiebreaker win in their match that will hopefully pave a little confidence going into their last weekend of the regular season.
“”We need to focus on our upcoming weekend, which will be challenging but doable,”” Maes said. “”I believe we have a strong chance against Sacramento State, and hope to gain momentum in that match to take on ASU as our final match on Saturday.””
