After suffering second-round singles losses in the Midland Tennis Classic last week in chilly weather, the Arizona men's tennis team looks to warm up a bit at the Roley West Regional in Malibu, Calif., today through Sunday.
This regional event will be one of 17 Division I Regional Championships taking place this weekend and next at campuses throughout the country. Nearly 600 schools annually send more than 7,000 players to their respective regional events.
UA head coach Bill Wright said the UA will compete against Southern California schools including Southern California, UCLA, Pepperdine and the University of San Diego, on Pepperdine's home court.
The winners of the singles and doubles tournaments will compete in the 2004 International Tennis Association National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. That tournament is the nation's top collegiate indoor tennis tournament and the second of three non-team national championship events this season.
Junior Roger Matalonga said that reaching the National Indoors is definitely one of his goals for this season.
"It's very important," he said. "It's not the main goal, but if I do well and I can go there, then great. You have the potential to play against great players."
Wright said that Matalonga will be joined by seniors Colin O'Grady and Paul Warkentin, sophomore Jason Labrosse and freshman Bruno Alcala in the main singles draw. The nation's fifth-ranked doubles team of Matalonga and O'Grady will compete in the doubles draw along with Warkentin and junior Tim Mullane and possibly Alcala and junior Daniel Andrus.
Matalonga said he will hold a top-five singles seed and his doubles team will be seeded second. After losing in the round of 16 of the Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships, Matalonga said he and O'Grady look to validate their lofty national doubles ranking.
"The first round we played good (at the All-American). We were right there and we were against a good team," he said. "We really want to play good here. We're looking forward to having a lot of wins and having the best tournament possible."
Matalonga pulled out of the singles All-American tournament because of cramps in his back, which he said represent a recurring problem. Last year his back forced him to retire in the Pacific 10 Conference Championships and the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"That's the reason I was a little concerned and a little afraid, but hopefully this year I can play a lot of matches," he said. "I've been drinking a lot of Gatorade and eating a lot of bananas. I carry with me stuff during the match to make sure that is not going to happen again. I have been massaging, doing everything possible to make sure that won't happen again."
Warkentin, who pulled out of last week's Midland Tennis Classic due to back problems, also said he would be ready for this match.
Wright said this tournament will provide Arizona with valuable match play going into the season.
"It's just like a football team," he said. "What do they get from a game? The young guys get what? The young guys get experience and that's what all these guys get. They get match tough and they get experience."
While match play is important, Wright also predicted his team would bring back more than experience.
"Roger's going to win the tournament," he said. "We don't know who he's going to play in the finals. It'll be another Wildcat, we don't know who. Maybe Warkentin's playing awfully well, or maybe O'Grady. It will be Warkentin or O'Grady versus Roger in the finals. These guys are good."