W-tennis’ Orletsky out with sickness

Having lost its rival match against ASU last weekend, the Arizona women’s tennis team is naturally feeling a little anxious to redeem itself.

But getting redemption might be a hard task for the Wildcats to fulfill, knowingly going into hardball at the Robson Tennis Center against two top-10 teams, as the Wildcats take on No. 7 California today at 1:30 p.m. and No. 5 Stanford tomorrow at noon.

Both teams beat Arizona by unforgiving scores just three weeks ago, but out of all of the matches, sophomore Katie Orletsky’s great level of performance stood out, however she will not be playing this weekend because of sickness.

“”I hate not competing and not being able to be out there with everyone, especially since I played really well in my singles match against Stanford,”” Orletsky said. “”It would have been nice to be able to turn that around, but I can’t do it now. I’ll do my best to cheer everyone else on, though.””

Despite of the storm, Orletsky finds a little ray optimism.

She is happy for teammate Claire Cox, who will be filling in her absence this weekend in the No. 6 singles spot.

“”It will be a good chance for her to play some matches and step it up this weekend,”” Orletsky said.

The healthy players on the team are looking forward to a beneficial overall match.

“”I think they’re just going to try and compete to the best of their ability, go out there, and play some good tennis,”” Orletsky said. “”We’re really focusing on being ready to play Washington and Washington State next, though.””

Men’s tennis eager to break nasty streak

This is the time of year when everyone is more vulnerable to sickness, but the achy feeling in the Wildcats’ stomachs is created by their hunger for a victory.

The No. 55 Arizona men’s tennis team lost its last three matches, making it the longest losing streak it has fallen victim to all season. And if that’s not hard enough to swallow, each match in the string of losses was a defeat by painful scores of 3-4.

The team faces off against California today at 1:30 p.m. and Stanford tomorrow at 1 p.m.

“”It’s not easy to lose three matches in a row,”” senior Bruno Alcala said. “”But we have to stay tough mentally and push through it.””

It may be harder for the squad to excel than last time they played Stanford and California, though, with star freshman player Jay Goldman out with an injury. Or it could be that the team will have to face an unfamiliar crowd on the road.

Either way you look at it, the players feel prepared and have a semi-optimistic outlook on what’s in store.

“”Things have been a little shaky for us,”” sophomore Pat Metham said. “”During practice, we’ve been doing a lot of drilling exercises to get us into the groove. It’s better when we go into the match feeling more confident.

“”It’s also really important that when we’ve got a chance to win, we have to go get it,”” he added. “”We can’t expect the teams to just give it to us.””