After a tough first day of action at the Rainbow Wahine Tennis Invitational, the UA women's tennis team rebounded to win all but one of its final 16 matches in the Hawaii tournament.
Arizona started the tournament off poorly with an 8-1 loss to Texas A&M at the UH Tennis Complex in Honolulu. The Wildcats bounced back in their final tournament of the semester by beating Hawaii 7-1 and sweeping Texas State 8-0. Injuries caused Arizona to play only eight matches against both schools, as opposed to the customary nine.
Being a preseason tournament, matches do not count toward team record totals, but they do go toward individual player records.
Senior Maja Mlakar stood out for Arizona as the only Wildcat to go undefeated in singles play despite an injured leg.
She won the team's only match of the meet against the Aggies in a 6-3, 4-6, (10-6) decision over Lauren Walker. She also defeated Hawaii's Sylvia Jaros, 6-0, 6-1 and Jana Cucciniello of Texas State, 6-1, 6-1.
Ace Dianne Hollands, a senior ranked seventh in the country, put up another subpar performance during this preseason period. She lost the Wildcats' only match to the Rainbow Wahine, falling to Lauren Fitzgerald, 6-2, 7-6 (7). Hollands also lost to A&M's Helga Vieira, 2-6, 7-6 (5), (10-7) before beating the Bobcats' Leja Sirola, 6-2, 6-1.
The nation's top doubles team in the country, Hollands and Mlakar, also dropped another match. This time they fell to the Aggies' duo of Helga Vieira and Anna Lubinsky in an 8-4 decision.
The Wildcats doubles duo finished the preseason with a mediocre 5-5 mark after defeating Hawaii's Lauren Fitzgerald and Paige Mainor, 8-4 and the Texas State duo of Tine Klemenc and Leja Sirola, 8-2.
The rest of the singles players all enjoyed similar success to one another. Junior Stephanie Balzert, sophomore Kasia Jakowlew and freshman Camelia Todorova all went 2-1, falling to Texas A&M and defeating their opponents from Hawaii and Texas State. Senior Kelly Perry retired from her match against the Aggies and defaulted her final two matches.
In doubles play, both the duo of Balzert and Perry and the combination of Jakowlew and Camelia Todorova won two of three matches. They both beat Hawaii and Texas State after losing to the Aggies.
The Wildcats will be off until Jan.13 when they compete in the Pacific 10 Conference Indoor Championships.