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CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Sophomore Daniel Andrus returns a serve when the Wildcats hosted Northern Arizona Jan. 19.
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By Roman Veytsman
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, March 5, 2004
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Arizona has beaten San Diego in their only five meetings, including a 4-3 win last year in San Diego, but this year is different, as the Toreros come into Tucson Sunday ranked higher than the Wildcats.
No. 32 San Diego (5-3) is coming off a win over San Diego State, which ended a three game losing streak.
"Both teams have improved in the last two years," said assistant coach Tad Berkowitz. "It's going to be a tough match. We've each gotten stronger."
San Diego brings in two ranked singles players in No. 17 Pierrick Ysern and No. 83 Jason Pongsrikul, as well as the No. 30 doubles team of Ryan Redondo and Felix Hardt.
"We know their team very well and they know our team very well," Berkowitz said. "We've faced their guys quite a bit in the fall. I think it's two pretty even teams all the way across the board."
The Wildcats are coming off of an upset win over California and are looking to continue their winning ways.
"The win against Cal has fired up these guys even more," Berkowitz said. "We've had a couple of good days of practice and I think they're just more eager to get things going. I think they know that San Diego is a good team, so I don't think they're going to take them lightly at all. If anything, they're going to take it a little more seriously, because they know now that we could have a good season and we can have success."
Arizona, which rose in the rankings from No. 42 to 34 last week, counters San Diego with No. 66 Roger Matalonga, a sophomore who leads the team with a 15-5 overall record. Matalonga, along with teammate Colin O'Grady, form the No. 27 doubles pair in the nation, earning a 9-1 record in the spring season.
"They're two national doubles players, and they complement each other so well," Berkowitz said. "They love playing doubles together, and they've really jelled together as a team. I believe they can beat anyone they go on the court against. They're excited about the rankings. They see themselves ranked in the top 30, so now they're trying to shoot for the top 20."
