The Arizona women’s tennis team has been on a tear for the past few weekends. The No. 38 Wildcats played a tough, physical match against No. 65 Brigham Young where they battled to come out on top 4-3. Arizona has been consistently working on its doubles game lately, and it showed when the team started out 2-0 against BYU.

“We did a really good job today in the doubles,” Arizona women’s tennis coach Vicky Maes said. “BYU was a tough team, [and] we knew they were going to be tough, but I felt they played better than even I expected.”

Playing any team is a new experience for Arizona junior transfer Briar Preston, as this is her first year as a Wildcat.

“Especially me being a transfer, I’ve never played these girls before, so I don’t really know what I’m going to get, and I prefer not to see beforehand,” Preston said. “I just like to go out and do my thing and play.”

Preston said she noticed she needs to work on her serves and become more consistent.

“I personally need to work on my serves,” she said. “It comes in and out, and it’s really frustrating. 

So, it’s just something I need to work on.”

Maes said she knew BYU was going to be a tough team to play and enjoyed seeing her team fight as hard as it could to get such a big win.

“I told the girls before singles started that they were going to be battling it out — and they did, and we gave it right back to them,” Maes said. “I think this was a really, really good win for us.”

The Arizona men’s tennis winning streak came to an end this weekend, as the Wildcats were defeated by No. 70 Nevada, 5-2. The men struggled from the start as they lost two doubles matches.
Arizona junior Jason Jaruvang went into three sets but ended up falling to Fernando Sunago.

“On my return game, I wasn’t mentally confident in my shot, so I just kept backing off of it,” Jaruvang said.

Jaruvang fought and did what he could against Nevada but said, mentally, he could have been better. 

“Practice is fine; my strokes are good and everything,” Jaruvang said. “It’s just on me at this point. My whole mental game needs to get back on it.”

Arizona men’s tennis coach Tad Berkowitz said he liked what he saw and knows never to doubt his team’s effort.

“The thing with these guys, I never doubt [or] fault their effort,” Berkowitz said. “They always give 100 percent. We’ve been doing a great job kind of earning the victories and taking it to guys, and [Saturday,] we just got a little bit passive early on, and Nevada took advantage of it. But … I’ll never fault their effort and attitude.”

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