After an extremely promising first day of the ITA West Regional Tournament in San Diego, Calif., the Arizona women’s tennis team was sent home early on Saturday, dropping two of its last nine matches.

All things considered, however, assistant coach Ryan Stotland said he is happy with what he saw.

“”Obviously the results look bad, but I’m happy with how we played,”” Stotland said. “”The focus of the tournament was to learn, and we did a lot of good things. We worked on developing our games more than results, and we learned to better ourselves.””

Senior Danielle Steinberg agreed.

“”The wins and losses aren’t necessarily an indicator for the spring,”” she said. “”It was more about practicing and getting better.””

Freshman Sarah Landsman was the only Wildcat to advance to the round of 16, defeating Pepperdine’s Anamika Bhargava in straight sets. Both Landsman and Deborah Castany, the other Wildcat freshman in the tournament, continued to impress the coaching staff in their first year on the team.

“”Our freshmen are very mature for their age,”” Stotland said. “”They have been impressive since day one.””

In addition to the freshmen, the efforts of the other players were well noted.

“”Overall, we all did really well,”” Steinberg said. “”There was a lot of tennis played this weekend, and against that competition, we probably got a little tired.””

Despite the daunting task of taking on some of the country’s finest tennis players, the Wildcats stood tall. Steinberg’s loss in the round of 32 came at the hands of Alison Ramos of USC in a thrilling, down-to-the-wire match that was decided on the final point of the final set. Afterward, Ramos went on to advance to Monday’s championship match.

Despite the noted improvements, the team knows there is still plenty of work to be done before the season begins.

“”We need to continue to improve over the next two months,”” Stotland said. “”This was a good eye opener against some of the best in the country, and now we know what to expect in the future.””