KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore Whi Kim prepares to return a serve earlier this season. The Wildcats travel to Palm Springs, Calif. this weekend to play in the Jerry's Desert Invitational.

With the dual match season set to begin in less then a month, UA men's tennis travels to Palm Springs, Calif., to participate in the Jerry's Desert Invitational.

This marks the first time the Wildcats will take the court since they defeated Hawaii 5-2 in November.

"We had a very productive fall with a lot of good tennis that was played," Arizona assistant coach Bob Helmig said. "This event will be the first since the holiday break and it will give the team an opportunity to see where they are at individually before the season begins."

Besides Arizona, University of California Irvine and College of the Desert will participate this weekend.

Currently, senior Steven Capriati is the top player for the Wildcats with junior captain Tom Lloyd seeded No. 2.

Sophomores Carl Hagman and Whi Kim round out UA's top four.

Capriati is ranked No. 67 and Hagman is ranked No. 97.

Capriati's main competition will come from Anteater Jonathon Endrikit, who is ranked 74th in the nation by the International Tennis Association.

"Irvine is going to be tough this year," Lloyd said. "They have three or four good players. People are going to be gunning for us this season due to our success last season. We are just going to face that this season."

Lloyd said this invitational will give each player an opportunity to improve before the season starts against San Diego next month.

"It is a time as a team to take a trip before the season," Lloyd said. "It is the last individual event, which allow us to regroup on our own before the season starts."

Kim said playing against different players will give the team a chance to prepare itself for the tough competition it is going to face in the regular season.

"We are playing well right now," Kim said. "This will gives us a chance to play against other players before the real season and Pac-10 play begins."

With the regular season set to begin Feb. 1 against San Diego, Lloyd said that the Wildcats are ready to improve on its season from a year ago, which marked the first time since 1996 that UA made the NCAA postseason tournament.

"Last year was the best year Arizona has ever had," Lloyd said. "We made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1996. It was one of only four teams to ever make the postseason and we did it with four freshmen and five new players. We have all but one guy back. We have some good freshmen, which will give us some depth."