The Arizona men's tennis team followed two conference losses over the first weekend of spring break with two decisive wins over nonconference opponents this weekend.
After losing to UCLA 7-0 and to USC 6-1, the Wildcats came back strong, defeating Ball State 7-0 and Clemson 6-1. Arizona improved to 10-6 with its latest two wins and holds a No. 25 ranking.
"It's good to play those type of teams," said junior Colin O'Grady of UCLA and USC, despite the fact that O'Grady and his doubles partner sophomore Roger Matalonga did not win either doubles match versus the LA schools. "All the matches were close, and a lot of them came down to a few points."
UCLA, ranked No. 8, swept the singles matches and lost only one doubles match, in which junior Paul Warkentin and sophomore Daniel Andrus defeated Tobias Clemens and Chris Lam 8-4.
Arizona faced USC the next day and went down again to the No. 4 ranked team in the nation. Falling in all three doubles matches, the Wildcats managed to get a win out of Matalonga, who beat Adriano Biasello 6-2, 6-0.
The next weekend went better for the Cats as they dominated Ball State.
"We weren't expecting much of a match from them," said O'Grady.
Arizona swept all three doubles matches and didn't lose a singles match, with only one match going to a third set.
The Wildcats followed that win by routing Clemson. Despite losing the doubles point, going down in two of the three matches, the Wildcats fought back to win all six singles matches.
"We're proud of that one," said O'Grady.