Despite an injury to senior leader Andres Carrasco, the Arizona men’s tennis team bounced back from two losses last weekend to take care of business back at the LaNelle Robson Center. The Wildcats recorded two dominating victories over University of the Pacific and Northern Arizona.
On Friday, the No. 42 ranked Wildcats handily defeated the Pacific, winning two out of three doubles matches and four singles matches. The doubles team of freshman Andre Vidaller and junior Jason Zafiros remained undefeated with an 8-4 victory. Freshman Mario Urquidi clinched the match for the Wildcats in his singles debut.
Arizona’s domination continued into Sunday when it swept NAU by a score of 7-0. The doubles point didn’t come easy however, as the Lumberjacks kept each doubles match close.
“”We could have played better in doubles today, we came out a little tentative. We weren’t being as aggressive as I wanted them to be,”” said head coach Tad Berkowitz.
Four of the six Wildcats participating in doubles were freshmen. Freshman Giacomo Miccini and senior Geoff Embry fought hard for a 9-7 victory over NAU’s Hugo Ramadier and Dominic Bermudez. On court three, after starting out with a 5-0 lead, NAU’s David Flodberg and Robin Pezzuto came back and won 7-5. On court two, after falling behind early on, freshman Sam Barr and senior Borja Malo came back to clinch the doubles point for the Wildcats. The singles portion of the match was not as close.
“”I was really impressed with their intensity and attitude in singles. (They) did a great job just simply taking care of business. Showed some professionalism out there and did a great job just taking care of business,”” Berkowitz said.
All six Wildcats won their singles matches with ease, but Berkowitz thought that a freshman stood out among the performances.
“”I thought Kieren Thompson did a nice a job. He’s a freshman and he just arrived in January and he kind of turned the corner a bit today and I was pleased with his results,”” Berkowitz said.
Thompson faced NAU’s Josh Brown on court six, and came out swinging his way to an early 5-0 lead. After ending the first set with a 6-2 win, Thompson finished off Brown with a 6-1 win in the second set.
The Women’s tennis team traveled out to Fresno, Calif., to face Fresno State University and the University of Nevada and came back to Tucson with one win. The Wildcats started off their match on Friday sweeping all three doubles matches, but was unable to have the same sort of success in singles.
Natasha Marks and Sarah Landsman were the only Wildcats to come out victorious in singles.
