By
Lindsey Manroel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Arizona to face tough field at Bulldog Classic
The UA women's tennis team will travel to Fresno, Calif. tomorrow to battle California, Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, Sacramento State, Pacific, Loyola Marymount, Nevada, Saint Mary's, San Jose State and Fresno State at the Bulldog Classic.
The tournament will be more than just a battle between players - it will mark the reunion between two coaches.
After spending a year as head coach with the Arizona women's tennis program, Brad Dancer will reunite with longtime coaching partner, assistant coach and friend, Kevin Epley - now Fresno State's head coach.
"It's going to be special for me to see him because he's such a great friend of mine," Dancer said.
Dancer and Epley met while coaching at the Bollettieri Academy in Florida four years ago. After accepting the job as Arizona head coach, Dancer hired Epley to become the assistant coach for the Wildcats.
After the two worked side by side last year building a strong Arizona squad, Epley was offered the head position for the Bulldogs.
When Epley took the role as Arizona's assistant, he helped establish UA's current roster - the former UA assistant coach recruited both junior Sophie Regnier and freshman Perrine Pernin, traveling to their hometowns in France.
Epley's influence over the women's tennis team was significant as he helped instill a winning attitude within the program.
"That's the attitude we're trying to claim in Arizona," Dancer said. "We want our presence to be known by our opponents. That's something we talk about everyday."
The tournament will also allow the players to reunite with Epley as well.
"I'm very happy to be able to see him again," Regnier said. "We had a good relationship, and I'm happy and excited to show him how I play."
Although Dancer and Epley will sit on opposite sides of the court, Dancer said that it will be the players, not the coaches, that will be competing.
"It's more of a reunion than anything else," Dancer said. "He's one of my best friends and I can't wait to spend some time together. The tournament should be some extra fun for us."
While the coaches reunite, Arizona's eight player roster will be competing in hopes of taking home the Wildcats first championship of the season.
The tournament will consist of a 64-player singles draw and a 32-team doubles bracket. Junior Lindsay Blau and senior Michelle Gough, who are seeded No. 2 and No. 3 in singles respectively, should be UA's top competitors this weekend.
Although UA will face a tough California squad - the team finished fourth in the country last season - Dancer has high hopes for his team.
"We have pretty high expectations for our girls," Dancer said. "We would love to put a girl in the finals and come away with a victory."
In doubles, while the duo of Gough and Blau has proven to be successful - the two have earned a No. 3 national ranking - they will not showcase their talent together this weekend.
"We're trying to utilize their expertise," Dancer said. "I want them to use their energy and intelligence to teach the other girls how to play doubles."
Freshmen Debbie Larocque and junior Laresa Marino will face the real challenge this week in doubles play.
Playing for the first time together, both players have a strong ground stroke - a characteristic that is unusual to doubles play.
Dancer is hoping that Larocque and Marino will use what he calls a "reverse strategy" in order to fool and outplay their opponents with their ground strokes.
While Dancer would like his squad to pick up wins in order to build confidence prior to the ITA Regionals on Nov. 9-13, his goals for this weekend are high - claim its first tournament title of the year.
