It's a good thing playing matches against tough competition matters more than results in preseason tournaments for the UA men's and women's tennis team, as both squads were shut out of the victory column at the 2004 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships this weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The singles tournament featured the top 32 players in the nation while the country's 16 best doubles teams could be found in the draw, for both the men and the women.

While both teams sent their top singles player and doubles team, they could only muster a win by default when an opposing player pulled out.

"The results weren't exactly what we were looking for," UA women's team assistant coach Brian Ramirez said. "The girls actually competed very hard. They were working hard on the court but for whatever reason things didn't fall our way in doubles and singles."

In the main draw of the women's singles draw, senior Dianne Hollands lost to host Michigan's Michelle DaCosta in a heartbreaking 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) loss.

"The other girl played well and served well on big points. That was a bit of a problem," Ramirez said. "Also, any time you play on an indoors court and they're your courts, it's always a little faster than outdoors. The crowd of about a hundred people sitting behind and rooting for you is a large incentive. It definitely had something to do with it."

Hollands, ranked seventh in the nation, fell to Georgia's Shadisha Robinson, 6-1, 6-0, in the consolation quarterfinals. She got past Susanna Lingman of Harvard in the consolation bracket's first round only after Lingman pulled out with an injury.

With the tennis regular season still two months away, Ramirez said he has no worries about his top player despite these results.

"Dianne has proven over the last three years that she is one of the top players in the country," he said. "She very much earned the ranking she's got, but for whatever reason things haven't gone as well in terms of results."

Hollands also teamed up with senior Maja Mlakar to make up the top-ranked doubles duo in the country and the fourth seed in the tournament. They fell to DaCosta and Michigan teammate Kara Delicata, 8-1.

However, Mlakar suffered a leg injury that ended her tournament prematurely. She returned early for X-rays, but the results were unknown as of yesterday.

"It's been an ongoing injury, but for whatever reason it really flared up at this event," Ramirez said. "It's not necessarily the reason for things not going well but it's definitely a contributing factor."

After Mlakar suffered her injury, the doubles duo defaulted its consolation match to William and Mary's Megan Muth and Amy Wei.

The doubles combination's record fell to a disappointing 3-4. In their first three tournaments they reached the quarterfinals before making an early exit.

Ramirez said that one reason for the lack of success is because the girls have played on the opposite sides of the court as they did last season. After their mediocre start, he said they will move back to their original positions.

"That should help considerably," Ramirez said. "It was a little bit of an experiment to see what would happen to improve some things and meet some stronger points of their games, but it just doesn't seem to work for them."

On the men's side, junior Roger Matalonga, ranked No. 29 nationally, started strong in the singles main draw against Illinois' Ryler DeHeart, but could not hold on in a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 defeat.

In the first round of the consolation round, Matalonga suffered a similar fate against Indiana's Jakub Praibis, falling 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

In the doubles bracket, Matalonga and senior Colin O'Grady, the country's fifth-ranked doubles team, played right with its competition but ended up with another loss against a Big-10 squad. DeHeart and Illinois partner G.D. Jones took down the Wildcats, 9-7.

Matalonga and O'Grady played another tough match in the consolation tournament, but lost this time to David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland of New Mexico, who beat UA 9-8 (4).

The Wildcats will be off until the start of regular season team play, which begins Jan. 11 at Hawaii.