EVAN CARAVELLI/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA junior Paul Warkentin returns a serve during a doubles match against No. 2 UCLA Saturday at the Lanelle Robson Tennis Center. Arizona fell to the Bruins 4-3.

Depleted UA squad nearly knocks off nation's No. 2 team

The Arizona men's tennis team shouldn't have had a chance Saturday at home against UCLA.

The Bruins entered the game ranked No. 2 in the nation, the Wildcats had lost 7-0 to Southern California the day before, and the UA was playing without some of its best players, including senior Tom Lloyd, who sat out with a groin injury.

But nobody told the Wildcats they were supposed to lose. Instead, a depleted Arizona (6-3) squad battled the Bruins (9-2) to the end before falling just short.

The Wildcats lost a 4-3 heartbreaker to UCLA one day after being swept by the No. 19 Men of Troy (5-1).

"It's disappointing," said head coach Bill Wright. "We had three guys out of the lineup that normally would be playing. You can't fault the effort from anyone. You can be disappointed and you can be sad, but you can't be devastated because everyone tried and no one can make the injuries go away."

After losing its first doubles point of the season to USC, the team regrouped and won two of the three doubles matches against UCLA. Sophomore Roger Matalonga and junior Colin O'Grady beat the No. 23 team of Chris Lam and Tobias Clemens 8-5 to remain undefeated in doubles play at 8-0.

"They really stepped up today," Wright said.

On court one, the team of sophomore Daniel Andrus and junior Paul Warkentin was serving for the match, but Kris Kwinta and Alberto Francis came back to win in the tiebreak 9-8 (7-3). Senior Whi Kim and sophomore Tim Mullane knew they had to win to gain the doubles point, and win they did, edging Chris Surapol and Phillip Gruendler in a tiebreak ending with Kim's slam volley to clinch the match.

In singles competition, Matalonga, who lost his first match of the season Friday, stepped into the No. 2 position on Saturday in place of Lloyd, and beat Lam in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2. Despite battling a back injury and falling behind 4-1 in the first set, Matalonga came back to upset the higher-ranked Lam.

"Yesterday, I lost my first match, so today was tough because I was tired, and I was trying to get my confidence back," Matalonga said. "I tried to fight and work the ball, and play point by point. I started to play a little bit better and I saw that he wasn't playing too well."

Trainers tended to Matalonga between sets and in between games during the match.

"The trainers did a good job," Matalonga said. "They put some heat on my back and I started feeling so much better, especially for my serve. I couldn't serve at the beginning. I tried to forget about my injury and just play tennis. I felt the pain, but I played normal."

Matalonga won the second set 6-2, dominating with his quickness and getting to balls that Lam thought were winners.

In the No. 3 position, Colin O'Grady won in straight sets, crushing Kwinta 6-3, 6-4. O'Grady improved to 3-2 and won his first match in the third position.

But the Wildcats couldn't pull out the win, as UCLA's Tobias Clemens claimed victory over senior Whi Kim. Kim led 5-3 in the first set, but Clemens fought back to win 7-5 before easily winning the second set 6-2.

"It's not a bad feeling for the team," Matalonga said. "We are a little sad, but we know we can beat these guys with everybody healthy."

Lloyd's groin pull will be reevaluated, and a prognosis should be known this week. He will miss at least a week of action.

Andrus had been feeling sick, but decided to play in the doubles match and should be ready to go for the next match. Senior Carl Hagman had ACL surgery last week and has not played a match in the regular season.

"It's disappointing that we didn't have a full lineup, because we had a chance today. But that's life," Wright said.