Coming off a loss to the University of Denver on Friday, Arizona had no day off to recover before taking on their next opponent, the Oregon Ducks. In what proved to be one of the closest games of the year for the Wildcats, Arizona lost a heartbreaker 4-3 and fell to 10-8 on the season.
Arizona began the day by capturing the doubles point to give them the 1-0 lead over Oregon. Lauren Marker and Paris Corley defeated their opponents 6-2 while teammates Camila Wesbrooks and Sophia Thomas sealed the victory with a 6-4 win.
“Going into singles, it definitely carries in your momentum,” Corley said. “You already have one point, so you’re just ready to go.”
Corley came through with one the strongest performances for the day for Arizona as she defeated opponent Alyssa Tobita (6-0, 6-4) to extend Arizona’s lead to 2-0.
“I had confidence from doubles, so going in I was just ready to carry it through,” Corley said. “Going into my second set I had all the momentum and I felt like I had the game in my hands.”
After Corley’s victory, Oregon secured three straight wins to take the lead 3-2 over Arizona with two matches left.
Lauren Marker and opponent Shweta Sangwan went back and forth all day before Marker eventually pulled ahead and sealed another Arizona victory (1-6, 6-1, 6-3), tying the meet at 3-3.
With the meet tied up, the matchup between the Ducks’ Nia Rose and Camila Wesbrooks was to determine the winner of the meet. Rose took the first set 6-1, but Wesbrooks bounced back to take the second set 6-3. However, Arizona would eventually fall to Oregon as Rose would take the third set in a tiebreaker, winning the match 7-6.
Up next for the Wildcats is a matchup against Washington in Seattle on Friday, April 7th at 1:30 p.m. MST.
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