No. 73 Arizona women’s tennis remained undefeated this season with three victories at home this weekend.
The Wildcats capitalized on their second double-header in two weeks, defeating Grand Canyon (4-0) and UTEP (5-0) on Friday and Sacramento State (4-0) on Saturday.
In doubles play, seniors Kim Stubbe and Susan Mc Rann defeated Alex Petrzalkova and Silvia Tumova of Grand Canyon 6-1. Senior Akilah James and freshman Lauren Marker shut out Frederique Van de Velde and Janaki Gunuganti to win 6-0, earning the doubles point for Arizona.
Sophomore Inge Hendrikx, Stubbe and Marker all won in singles matches to secure the victory for Arizona.
In the UTEP match, Marker and James started the Wildcats off strong, defeating Marie LeBlond and Gabi Vazquez 6-0. Sophomore Shayne Austin and senior Lacey Smyth continued that momentum, defeating Rebeca Calvillo and Davina Meza 6-2 to earn the doubles point for the Wildcats.
Austin, Stubbe, Smyth and Marker all won in singles matches, once again securing the win for the Wildcats.
“It was a long day of tennis for the team,” head coach Vicky Maes said in a press release, “but we performed well all day. Both GCU and UTEP made us work for the points. We are making good improvements in doubles, and everyone played smart and patient in singles.”
On the other hand, the Sacramento State match was a bit more competitive. Getting off to a great start, the Wildcats won all three doubles matches 6-1, 6-4 and 6-2. In addition, they added two more points to take the 3-0 lead, but then faced a roadblock. Smyth won the tiebreaker set against Jennifer Nguyen 6-1, 4-6, 10-6 to get the victory for the Wildcats.
“Fortunately, Lacey kept her cool to win the super tiebreaker,” Maes said. “But with this format, things can turn quickly and I certainly did not feel comfortable for a while. Credit to Sacramento State for battling, but we need to do better mentally if we want to continue our winning ways.”
For men’s tennis, senior Mario Urquidi and sophomore Matt Dunn defeated Naveen Beasley and Ben Donovan of Cal Poly 6-3. Following soon after, seniors Fredrik Ask and Kieren Thompson defeated Marco Comuzzo and Matt Thomson in a tie-breaking 6-5 win to earn the first point for the Wildcats.
Singles matches turned to be extremely close. Urquidi battled back from a 5-2 deficit against Cal Poly to win the tiebreaker 6-5 (7-5) and to win the match for the Wildcats (4-3).
“[Urquidi] did an awesome job stepping up for the team,” head coach Tad Berkowitz said in a press release. “Just a pure gritty effort on his part, and he showed a lot of toughness out there.””
The team also defeated UC Santa Barbara (4-3) on Feb. 9. Arizona took the doubles point with the play of Urquidi and Dunn, along with junior Sumeet Shinde and sophomore Naoki Takeda. In singles matches, Shinde, Ask and Takeda all won to earn the victory for the Wildcats.
Women’s tennis will head to Lubbock, Texas for its first spring road trip to take on Texas Tech on Friday and Georgia Tech on Saturday. Men’s tennis will take on Idaho on Saturday and Nevada on Sunday.
—Follow Matt Wall @Mwall20