Revenge hangs in the air as Sacramento State’s men’s tennis team returns to play the Arizona men’s tennis team today.
Just last season, Arizona clinched a match against the Hornets by a single point, 4-3. Sophomore Mario Urquidi, a freshman then, took the third and final singles point of the match in a three-set battle against Javier Millan to force doubles play for the tiebreaker.
Urquidi dropped the first set 6-2. In the second set, it was a battle for every game and Urquidi clinched it 7-5. By the third set, Urquidi kept Millan at one game to win the match 6-1.
Then it was left up to former Arizona player Andres Carrasco and then freshman Kieren Thompson to send the Hornets home in defeat. Carrasco and Thompson did just that by clinching the match-winning point with a score of 8-2.
On Friday, the two teams will meet up again and the Wildcats are prepared to play with a full roster. This includes newcomers Sumeet Shinde and Sebastian Ionescu. It will be Ionescu’s collegiate debut.
“Sacramento has dominated its conference in the past years,” head coach Tad Berkowitz said. “Most California schools are strong competition, so we look to play our best game.”
To make the schedule easier on the traveling teams, the Wildcats will also host San Francisco on Sunday.
Play begins at noon on both days at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.
W-Tennis goes country
The Arizona women’s tennis team will travel to Nashville, Tenn., this weekend to play two top-25 NCAA Division I teams.
The Wildcats find themselves with a guaranteed match against No. 17 Vanderbilt on Saturday. This will be the first time the teams meet in the spring season.
Depending on the outcome of the match against Vanderbilt, Arizona will either play No. 23 Alabama or No. 15 Texas on Sunday.
With all three teams being outside the Pac-12 Conference, the Wildcats “don’t know much about how the teams work together or play, which poses a challenge,” head coach Vicky Maes said.
According to Maes, the only top-25 teams Arizona consistently matches up against are in the Pac-12.
All eight girls will be traveling to the tournament, but there are only six singles matches and three doubles matches. This means one player will sit out of the lineup entirely and two players will be short-changed on their playing time.
Even though Arizona is the underdog of this tournament, Maes believes the team is “strong in every position,” leaving the Wildcats with one goal in mind: Pull off some upsets.
“It is a good weekend for us to truly test our ability as a team,” Maes said.
