ERIC M. JUKELEVICS/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA Junior Tom Lloyd hits a backhand last weekend during his win over Rice's Prakash Venkataraman. The Wildcats lost their first match of the season, 2-5 on Sunday.

The UA men's tennis team entered the weekend looking to go into Pacific 10 Conference play undefeated, but came out with the first blemish on its season record.

Looking for its first win against a higher-ranked opponent this season, Arizona (6-1 overall) suffered its first loss of the season to the hands of No. 39 Rice, 2-5, yesterday.

The no. 43 Wildcats did manage a victory over the weekend as they dominated Texas Tech, 6-1, on Friday.

However, they faced a much better opponent against Rice.

Rice came out early and jumped on UA to gain the early 1-0 advantage by taking the doubles portion of the match.

"We came out flat," sophomore Whi Kim said. "We were flat in doubles and they took it to us. They just wanted it more than we did."

The Owls came into yesterday's match after being handed their worst loss of the season at the hands of ASU 1-6 on Saturday.

UA sophomore Arnaud Agniel said Rice came in as a team that was not going to go home losing two straight matches.

"It was a very tough loss for us," Agniel said. "Rice suffered a bad loss to ASU, and they wanted to do well (yesterday). They were more fired up than we were."

Wildcat top seed Steven Capriati suffered his second loss in the past three matches 3-6, 3-6 to William Barker.

The senior held a commanding 3-0 lead in the second set, but lost focus and eventually lost the match.

UA head coach Bill Wright said he is displeased with Capriati's inability to adjust his game plan.

"Steven hits better than anyone in the country," Wright said. "But in every sport, the best athlete does not always come out on top. The athlete or team that doesn't let anything stand in their way of a win is the team that comes out on top. We did not do that today.

"Steven lost focus, and that is going to happen. He needs to work on his mental approach."

Even though the Wildcats suffered their first loss, Kim continued to display his will to win as he defeated Matthias Mathaes 7-5 (15-13) 7-5 (6-4) to remain undefeated on the season.

"(Mathaes) had a really big serve that kept him in the match," Kim said. " We both had a few set points in the first set, and I knew that winning the first set would decide the match. We both battled and made lucky shots, but I think I just wanted it more."

With No. 4 USC and No. 5 UCLA coming to Tucson this weekend, Wright said the team should be more focused after losing to Rice.

"It's better to come out flat now rather than next weekend," said Wright about the start of Pac-10 play. "I think we will be a lot more focused next weekend."