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Wednesday May 1, 2001

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Wildcat doubles teams impress at Pac-10s

By Dan Komyati

Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA singles outshone by doubles squads

Although no championships were won, the UA women's tennis program took a step in the right direction at the Pacific-10 Conference Individual Championships this weekend in Ojai, Calif.

The Wildcats were unable to advance any singles players past the second round of the tournament, but surprised those in tennis circles with their doubles play.

Arizona advanced both doubles pairs past the first round of the main draw, while junior Laresa Marino and freshman Debbie Larocque fell one match short of making it to the finals.

In tournament singles main-draw action, Wildcat senior Michelle Gough, junior Sophie Regnier and Larocque dropped their first-round contests.

Gough and Regnier fell in straight sets, while Southern California's Jewel Peterson battled back from a set down to earn a victory over Larocque, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.

The lone Wildcat to advance in the main draw was Marino, who outlasted Oregon's Janice Nyland 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Marino fell short in her bid to advance to the quarterfinals, falling in straight sets to Arizona State's Adria Engel, 6-4, 6-2.

Playing out of the invitational bracket, UA freshman Perrine Pernin cruised to a straight-set victory over UCLA's Jennifer Donahue, 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round. In the round of 16, USC's Melissa Esmero and Pernin battled back and forth before Esmero finally put Pernin away in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

On the doubles side, Gough attempted to defend her 2000 tournament championship with Regnier. After easing past Washington State's Stacy McKenna and Ana Moura, 8-5, in the round of 16, the duo was stopped, 8-4 by UCLA's Lauren Fisher and Peyta Marinova in the quarterfinals.

Gough and Lindsay Blau won the doubles title in the main draw last year, UA's first Pac-10 championship title since 1993.

Perhaps the brightest spot of the tournament came from Marino and Larocque. The two won convincingly against Washington State's Tamara Filipovic and Erica Perkins, 8-2, and hung on to defeat USC's Tiffany Brymer and Jewel Peterson, 9-8, to advanced to the semifinals.

Their bid to play in the finals fell short when they lost to UCLA's doubles team of Mariko Fritz-Krockow and Sara Walker, 8-4.

"The doubles went pretty good, it was a good experience to build on," Marino said. "We had a lot of fun, I've played (at Ojai) in juniors before coming to UA, and the environment is always very exciting."

UA head coach Brad Dancer said he was proud of the way his team represented itself at the nation's premier collegiate tennis tournament.

"There is no other tournament in the world like it, it is truly something special," Dancer said in an e-mail. "Although we didn't have anyone gunning for a title on Sunday, we still played many good matches, and I feel it was a successful trip overall for us."

The Wildcats are hoping it was not the last trip of this season - the NCAA team championships' field of 64 will be announced Thursday.