By Chris Wuensch
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday February 10, 2003
Coming off a tough loss to Brigham Young University on Saturday, the UA men's tennis team rebounded strong, finishing the weekend by routing UC-Santa Barbara.
After losing a close match-up to BYU 4-3, Arizona swept UCSB, winning all seven available points. With the win on yesterday, the Wildcats improved their season record to 4-1.
The doubles loss by junior Whi Kim and freshman Daniel Andrus was the sole match Arizona lost to UCSB.
"(Saturday) I got beat mentally, I felt like I let the team down," said Kim. "I knew I had to come out (Sunday) and just play hard."
Kim and Andrus would avenge their earlier doubles loss with singles victories.
Number one singles starter Kim would improve his record to 3-2 in a grueling two-set match. The hard-fought battle with Carlos Palencia from Cordoba, Mexico, featured a tiebreaker in both sets. The pesky Palencia was rattled early and often by the calm and collected Kim. The heated first set saw Palencia repeatedly questioning the referee's calls and culminated when the Gauchos number one singles player asked that the referee be removed from the chair.
"They want to win as bad as you do. They'll do anything to win," said Kim in regards to facing fellow number one singles players.
Andrus lifted his record to 4-1 with a victory over Michael Frick. Playing out of the number five position Andrus won convincingly 6-1, 6-3.
Adding to the depth of Arizona's lineup with victories in the fourth and sixth spots respectively were Colin O'Grady and Roger Matalonga. The young Wildcats ÷ O'Grady a sophomore, Matalonga a freshman ÷ along with Andrus, have combined for a season record of 13-1.
Matalonga and O'Grady were the only two Wildcats to earn victories in Saturday's loss to BYU.
For sophomore Paul Warkentin, yesterday proved to be more than just another match. The Santa Barbara native earned his second win of the season defeating Alex Anselme in three sets. The Ohio State transfer came back and outlasted Anselme 0-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5.
"It's always good to beat these guys," said Warkentin.
The Santa Barbara local said he stays in touch with several of the Gauchos on and off the court when he returns to his California home.
Rounding out the victories for the Wildcats was Denmark native Carl Hagman in an arduous bout over fellow European Mirco Schwindt of Germany. The two met twice yesterday, the first match coming in the number one doubles. Emotions ran high in both matches. In the doubles the tensions peaked when the junior Hagman accused Schwindt of cursing at him in German.
Arizona will be home to face the University of Utah on Tuesday at the LaNelle Robson tennis center, before traveling to Southern California next weekend to face tough Pac-10 rivals USC and UCLA.