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DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Arizona junior Daniella Torres returns serve Wednesday against Northern Arizona at home.
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By Brett Fera
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, Mar. 8, 2002
A tired UA women's tennis team was still able to dominate both of its matches on Wednesday, defeating Lynn in the opener, 5-2, and knocking off Northern Arizona later in the day, 6-1.
The Wildcats, just returning home from a two-match Texas road trip over the weekend, improved to 7-4 on the season after upsetting No. 18 Texas A&M on Friday and losing to Texas on Sunday.
Arizona freshmen Maja Mlakar and Marie-Pier Pouliot, along with sophomore Debbie Larocque, were able to win each of their matches on the day, each winning two singles matches and two doubles matches without a loss.
Mlakar, the top seed for the Wildcats with a ranking of No. 25 nationally, won her singles matches with relative ease, defeating Lynn's Monika Mastalirova 6-0, 6-3, and Yvonne de Waal of NAU, 6-1, 6-4.
Mlakar and Pouliot won their doubles match against Lynn, 8-6, while Mlakar and Larocque, ranked No. 13 nationally as a pair, posted a victory in their doubles match against NAU, 8-1.
Despite earning a victory, Mlakar was not pleased with her doubles play against Lynn, noting the road trip to Texas as a possible factor.
"We were all a little bit tired from the weekend," Mlakar said. "Even though we won, doubles was just so-so. The whole team could have been better prepared mentally today."
Larocque fought hard to defeat Marie Barbier of Lynn, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, while cruising a win over Kathy Kmiec of NAU, 6-0, 6-4.
Head coach Vicki Maes was disappointed with the performance against Lynn and says that the team needs to step up in their home matches against California and Stanford this weekend.
"We are facing a couple of the best teams in the country, and we need to be ready," Maes said. "I need to feel that everyone is ready to play this weekend, and right now I don't."
The Wildcats have a tough weekend ahead of them, hosting No. 14 California today at 1:30 and No. 3 Stanford tomorrow at noon. Both matches are at the Robson Tennis Center.
Mlakar is confident that the team can play well this weekend.
"We will be 100% ready for Cal and Stanford. We just need be confident and keep fighting. If we do that we will be able to do well," Mlakar added.
