FILE PHOTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior Debbie Larocque returns a serve earlier this season. Laroque won both her singles and doubles match ups as the Wildcats upset the Sun Devils.

The women's tennis team continued Arizona's domination over in-state rival Arizona State this weekend, upsetting the higher ranked Sun Devils in Tempe.

In the final match of the regular season, the No. 28 Wildcats dropped No. 17 ASU on Saturday by a score of 4-3. The victory for the Wildcats closes their season at 9-11 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-10. The loss drops ASU to 9-10 overall and 2-6 in conference play.

Arizona kicked off the scoring early, claiming the pivotal doubles point. The Wildcats blanked the Sun Devils, winning all three doubles matches, capped by an upset of the Sun Devil's top ranked doubles pair. The duo of Emilie Scribot and Maja Mlakar downed No. 44 Adria Engle and Lauren Colallilo. In other doubles action, Kristy Randono and Debbie Larocque dropped Cindy Sureephony and Mhairi Brown, 8-4 on court two, while the duo of Kelly Perry and Dianne Hollands beat Megan Yeats and Joslynn Burkett 8-2.

"Getting the doubles point was crucial," head coach Vicky Maes said.

Arizona took the court for singles play needing to win three of the six matches to finish off the upset. Despite proving victorious in those three grueling doubles matches, the Wildcat squad showed resiliency and prevailed over the Sun Devils as the team's top singles player, No. 10 Scribot, fell to No. 11 Engle. Engle needed three sets and a third set tiebreaker to fend off Scribot.

The loss to Engle snapped Scribot's seven-match winning streak, which dated back to the last meeting with Engle and the Sun Devils on Feb. 26. The Wildcats got their wins out of the two, three and four positions in the lineup. No. 50 Mlakar continued her torrid pace by beating No. 54 Dora Krstulovic in straight sets 6-0, 6-2. The sophomore from Maribor, Slovenia's recent play in the past two weeks has moved Mlakar up 25 spots in the rankings to No. 50.

"Maya has been playing really well," Maes said. "She has a lot of heart."

No. 52 Hollands felled Brown in the third spot. The Dunedin, New Zealand native won in two sets 6-3, 6-3.

The fourth and decisive point came on the racquet of Larocque. The junior from Laval, Quebec picked an ideal time to end her two-game losing skid, coming from behind to defeat Sureephony 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

"Debbie is a better player than the player she was facing," said Maes. "She got off to a slow start, got a little down on herself but regrouped."

Maes said the said the win should help the team roll into the postseason.

"As far as morale goes, I think we finished the season on a good note," the second year coach said. "Winning three of the last four, I think the team is peaking at the right time of the year."

Arizona will next travel to Ojai, Calif. to compete at the Pac-10 championships. The tournament is based on individual performances, rather than team efforts. According to Maes the conference championship allows the players on the "bubble" to get some wins in preparation for the NCAA tournament, slated to begin in two weeks.