The Arizona men's tennis team has a tough test at home this weekend.
Before the Wildcats can enjoy their spring break, No. 42 Arizona (7-4, 1-2 Pacific 10 Conference) has to face No. 9 Southern California (6-5, 3-1) today at 1:30 p.m. and No. 8 UCLA (12-2, 2-1) tomorrow at 1 p.m. Both games are at Robson Tennis Center.
"This is one of our two biggest weekends," said Arizona head coach Bill Wright. "The other is when Cal and Stanford come to town. We're very optimistic and excited."
Arizona is coming off a 6-1 thumping of Memphis.
"The guys have rebounded great," said assistant coach Tad Berkowitz. "They played with a lot of confidence."
The Wildcats are going to need that confidence to derail two top-10 teams in consecutive days.
"Both teams are very balanced from top to bottom," Berkowitz said. "UCLA's top two players are top 10 in the nation. Their doubles team is top five."
Arizona's No. 22 doubles team of senior Colin O'Grady and junior Roger Matalonga faced UCLA's Alberto Francis and Krzysztof Kwinta in the fall, losing 8-6.
Wright said he feels his team is good enough to get the job done.
"If everyone plays well, we can beat both of these teams," he said.
Berkowitz said he believes in the team and what they can accomplish when they really want it.
"We've got some good competitors on this team," he said. "We need to fight hard and have a tough mentality."
SUBHED: Women try to root out Golden Gophers
The No. 49 Arizona women's tennis team has one last match before the break.
The Wildcats (5-6, 0-1 Pacific 10 Conference) face Minnesota (5-4, 0-1 Big 10 Conference) Sunday at Robson Tennis Center at noon.
Arizona is coming off a tough loss to in-state rival ASU.
"The girls showed an incredible effort Wednesday," said Arizona assistant coach Brian Ramirez. "We sat some girls down and said, 'It's our way or the highway. And the highway is out the front door.'"
Head coach Vicky Maes said she was very pleased with the effort her whole team put together its last time out.
"We have one more test before a well-deserved break," she said.