Men's tennis gets bad northern exposure


By Matthew Bassin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, April 11, 2005

The No. 49 Arizona men's tennis team had a rough weekend.

Arizona lost at unranked Oregon 5-2 Saturday.

The match started with a tough round of doubles play.

The No. 19 team of senior Colin O'Grady and junior Roger Matalonga fell 8-6 to Oregon's Markus Schiller and Vlad Pino.

Senior Paul Warkentin and junior Dan Andrus lost 9-7 to Sven Swinnen and Arron Spencer.

The Wildcats' freshmen again provided the silver lining in the team's dark cloud.

Claudio Christen and Bruno Alcala defeated Thomas Bieri and Manuel Kost 8-6.

In singles play, No. 55 Matalonga played on court one against No. 14 Swinnen, going down 6-2, 6-2.

The team captain O'Grady defeated Oregon's Schiller 7-5, 6-4.

Andrus, playing on court three, lost to Bieri 6-3, 6-2.

On court four, senior Paul Warkentin sprained his ankle during play and still tried to finish the match. Unable to finish, Warkentin lost the match to Kost 6-3, 3-3, retired.

On court five, Alcala lost a tough match to Spencer 6-3, 6-3.

Claudio defeated Pino 6-3, 7-5.

Friday, the Wildcats (8-11, 1-5 Pacific 10 Conference) faced No. 12 Washington (16-4, 5-1) losing 4-2.

The match started rough for the Wildcats, as they lost all three doubles matches.

O'Grady and Matalonga dropped their match 8-5 to the No. 27 team of Dan Chu and Alex Slovic.

Warkentin and Andrus lost 6-5 to Chris Palmanshofer and Alex Vlaski.

Alcala and Claudio could not make their magic happen this time, as they went down 8-6 to Andy Kuharszky and Michael Ricks.

In singles play, the Wildcat's scratched together two wins, but couldn't overcome the Huskies.

On court one, No. 55 Matalonga had a huge win, defeating No. 19 Vlaski 6-2, 6-4.

"Roger played great," said Arizona assistant coach Tad Berkowitz. "Best win of the year."

On court two, O'Grady lost to No. 29 Slovic 6-3, 6-2.

Andrus played tough against Palmanshofer but fell 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).

Alcala started off hot against Kuharszky, but cooled off quickly, losing 5-7, 6-0, 6-1.

Claudio won 6-4, 6-4 against Peter Scharler.

"We're struggling," Berkowitz said. "We played OK at Washington, but I think the pressure of us making the (NCAA) tournament got to the guys against Oregon."

Arizona is a bubble team trying to fight its way into the postseason.

"Oregon has had a rough season," Berkowitz said. "They played like they had nothing to lose. They simply played better than us."

Berkowitz said the effort was there, but that too many things went the opponent's way.

Arizona has one regular-season match left, hosting No. 53 ASU Saturday at Robson Tennis Center

"We got one more shot," Warkentin said. "We have got to beat the Sun Devils."