The Arizona men’s tennis team’s losing streak came to an end last week after it won two of its four matches over spring break. After four hours and 40 minutes of play, the Wildcats outlasted the Idaho Vandals 4-3. Idaho swept Arizona in doubles play, forcing the Wildcats into clinching the match with singles wins.
“Our four sophomores got the job done today,” said men’s head coach Tad Berkowitz. “They all competed well.”
Sophomore Andre Vidaller took down Idaho’s Abid Akbar, 6-1, 6-1, to earn Arizona’s first match point. With freshman Carlos Bermudez dropping his match, the Vandals took the lead again at 2-1.
In a comeback performance, sophomore Mario Urquidi edged the Vandals’ Cristobal Ramos-Salazar in three sets to tie the match at two. Urquidi dominated the first set 6-3, but fell 2-6 in the second. With his usual fight-back mentality, Urquidi defeated Ramos-Salazar 6-4 in the third set. Freshman Sebastian Ionescu dropped his match, giving Idaho a 3-2 lead for the match, making the next few wins crucial for the Wildcats.
Sophomore Giacomo Miccini tied the match at 3, after defeating the Vandals’ Marius Cirstea in three sets with scores of 1-6, 7-5, 6-4. Finally, the match was down to court five. In another three-set match, sophomore Kieren Thompson defeated Idaho’s Cesar Torres, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Thompson’s victory clinched the match for the Wildcats. The team’s record is now 5-10 as it enters Pac-12 play this weekend.
Meanwhile, the Arizona women’s team lost its first match of conference play on Friday to Washington State, 6-1.
“It was a bad day for us,” women’s head coach Vicky Maes said. “We didn’t show up. All year, we’ve had people step up to get the needed wins, but we simply couldn’t get it done in Pullman. It was a disappointing loss because we’ve come to expect so much more from this team.”
The Wildcats’ loss snapped their four-game winning streak. However, the team remains undefeated at home. The only point for Arizona came from sweeping Washington State in doubles play. In a shutout performance, the standout duo of senior Sarah Landsman and freshman Hailey Johnson took down WSU’s Andjela Kankaras and Ksenia Googe, 8-0.
As the Wildcats fell one by one in singles play, it was up to sophomore Lacey Smyth to hold off WSU from clinching the match. Smyth went into a three set match with No. 43 Liudmila Vasilieva. Smyth won the first set 6-2, but dropped the second 4-6. In a close third match, Vailieva barely edged Smyth with a score of 7-6.
The team’s record is 10-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
