The 10-6 Arizona Wildcats women’s tennis team returned home to Tucson to welcome the 41st ranked Denver Pioneers. Coming off a 4-3 victory over Rice, Arizona looked to extend their win streak but ultimately fell to Denver, falling to 10-7 on the season.
Arizona began the day losing the doubles point as Marie Van Aelst and Camila Wesbrooks fell to their opponent, 6-1. The match between pairs Lauren Marker and Paris Corley versus Julia O’Loughlin and Maureen Slattery was called before it was finished, as Arizona was forced to forfeit the doubles points due to injury in the third match.
Denver used the momentum to quickly build a lead on Arizona, as Bianca Mok and Sonja Radosevic picked up the first two wins over Wesbrooks (6-3, 6-3) and Van Aelst (6-3, 6-4) respectively to put them up 3-0.
Corley lost her first set 3-6 to opponent Maureen Slattery, but turned it around to finish the match with a 6-4 win in the second set before closing out the match with a 6-2 victory in the third set. Corley gave Arizona their first win of the day to close the gap to 3-1.
Marker fell behind early as well, losing her first set 4-6 before making a comeback to dominate her opponent Julia O’Loughlin, winning the next two sets 6-0 and 6-1.
“I realized I was going for a little too much in the beginning,” Marker said after her match. “I had to keep moving her around. I think her weakness was her movement, so I kind of used that to my advantage.”
With her win, Marker pulled Arizona within one point of tying the game. She credited her confidence in her ability to win the match spurred her comeback.
“I never really thought I was going to lose the match, even after the first set,” Marker said.
Wins from Arisha Landhani and Claire Koke ultimately ended Arizona’s comeback attempt as they lost the meet, 5-2. Up next for the Wildcats is another ranked opponent, as they take on the 38th ranked Oregon Ducks on Saturday at noon MST.
“Today was tough, but we’re doing a really great job competing on all our courts,” Marker said after the loss. “Tomorrow we need to go in with the same mentality, everyone needs to take care of their courts.”
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