The No. 46 Arizona women’s tennis team made a number of lineup changes this weekend but to no avail, as its four-match win streak was snapped by No. 7 California and No. 1 Stanford.
The Wildcats (5-5, 2-0), who lost both matches 6-1, chose to break up two of their doubles teams and return to their original season lineup.
Sophomore Danielle Steinberg, who had been playing at the No. 2 spot with junior Camelia Todorova, moved up to the No. 1 position with junior Juliette Mavroleon, who had spent the last five matches playing at No. 3 with freshman Katie Orletsky.
The former No. 1 team of freshman Natalia Toporowska and senior Kasia Jakowlew moved down to fill the No. 2. Todorova and Orletsky were placed together as the No. 3 team.
“”We moved some people around to help give us a better opportunity,”” said UA assistant coach Brian Ramirez. “”We wanted to get better match-ups with some of these teams.””
Arizona also played around with the singles lineup by putting Mavroleon in the No. 1 position and Steinberg at No. 2. Mavroleon had a successful history with Stanford’s No. 1 player, No. 15 Theresa Logar, Ramirez said.
The change proved ineffective, however, as Mavroleon lost to Logar 6-3, 6-3.
One player who benefited from the lineup changes was sophomore Tina Razloznik. Razloznik moved down to the No. 6 position for the two matches and came away with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Stanford’s Lejla Hodzic.
Razloznik said she didn’t mind all of the changes despite being moved down in the lineup. She pointed out that UA head coach Vicky Maes had told them the changes would give them the best chance to win.
“”It was for the benefit of the team,”” Razloznik said.
Altitude plays role in men’s first two conference losses
As if competing against two top conference opponents on the road wasn’t hard enough, the Arizona men’s tennis team also had to worry about the altitude.
The No. 64 Wildcats (2-6, 0-2) lost their first two matches of the Pacific 10 Conference season Friday and Saturday to No. 29 California and No. 25 Stanford, respectively.
Against California (6-4, 2-2), Arizona struggled to adjust to the sea-level altitude, which affected the bounce of the ball, said UA assistant coach Tom Lloyd.
The team was unable to practice because of rain when they arrived Thursday, so the only chance they had to get used to the altitude came right before Friday’s match.
“”Down at sea level, the ball is a lot slower,”” Lloyd said. “”We told the guys that by (Saturday) they would be seeing the ball a lot better, and that is what happened.””
Still, the Wildcats lost 4-3 to Stanford (3-6, 2-2).
The only player to pick up wins in both matches was junior Peter Zimmer, who moved to the No. 4 singles position from his previous No. 3 spot for both matches.
“”We just wanted to give him some confidence and a little bit of breathing room,”” Lloyd said. “”And it looks like it worked.””
Zimmer’s best performance came against California. After splitting sets with Kallim Stewart, Zimmer found himself down 9-3 in the decisive super-tiebreaker.
Zimmer managed to fight through six match-point situations and come away with the win.
“”Before I knew it, I was way down,”” Zimmer said. “”But then he gave me a few easy points, and I took that and kept going piece by piece, and it ended up my way.””
Despite the losses, Lloyd said Arizona can still be encouraged by the way they competed.
“”The guys saw how close we were to a team like Stanford, so hopefully they learn something from that and take it into next weekend and so on,”” he said.