CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat The doubles team of UA seniors Dianne Hollands, left, and Maja Mlakar, which opened its fall schedule as the nation's No.1 doubles team before suffering a few early setbacks, returns to play this weekend in Seattle ranked 17th nationally.

Tennis duo seeks success at Pac-10 indoor tourney

Attention, naysayers.

The Arizona women tennis team's top doubles duo returns to action this weekend in the Pac-10 Indoor Championships in Seattle.

Singles play starts Friday at the Nordstrom Center at the University of Washington. Doubles play begins Saturday, giving Wildcat seniors Dianne Hollands and Maja Mlakar, selected as the nation's top women's doubles team in September, a chance to finally eradicate a disappointing fall season.

"Our performances haven't been good enough, definitely, so I know there's going to be no ranking that's going to really affect us when spring comes around," Hollands says of she and Mlakar, who enter the tournament ranked No. 17 nationally. "Which might be an advantage, because then we can just work our way up back to where we were."

The falling of the leaves

After ending the 2003-2004 season with a 19-8 record and a season-high No. 5 national ranking, Hollands and Mlakar reached the semifinals of the Pacific 10 Conference Doubles Championship in May. Though they lost that match, and were bounced from the first round of the NCAA Tournament three weeks later, neither player expected those performances to last as highlights into 2005.

"We did earn that number one ranking," Hollands says, "but we just weren't able to come up with the results we needed to solidify (it)."

The trouble began in September prior to the Baylor Invitational, the team's first fall competition. Sporting many preseason lauds - including a No. 7 singles ranking for Holland, 22 spots higher than the year before - the pair started slow. Following a day one doubles victory and Mlakar's singles win, she and Hollands were upset in the quarterfinals by Georgia Tech's Kristi Miller and Alison Silverio. Mlakar later pocketed a singles loss to Tulsa's Daniela Muscolino.

At the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships in October, Hollands broke a four-match singles win streak with a loss in the first round, and the team lost again in the quarterfinals, this time to Notre Dame's Catrina and Christian Thompson.

The bottoming out for Hollands and Mlakar occurred at the 2004 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships at Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 4-7. Neither Hollands nor Mlakar won a first-day match, and the team defaulted in the consolation round due to Mlakar's shin splints.

Hollands and Mlakar finished 6-5 in doubles play.

Restoring lost roots

As it happened, the cause for Hollands and Mlakar's fall struggles was as simple as a switch.

"We did some changes in our game - switch our positions and stuff - (that) kind of caused us some troubles," Mlakar says. "We did it in the fall because that's the season that's not as important as the one in the spring. We were experimenting with some things."

The results weren't promising. Long accustomed to their own sides of the court, both Hollands and Mlakar struggled, their play stuck in a cruel mirror. Aggression died, mobility was stifled and morale took a decided blow, says head coach Vicky Maes.

"What we can tell about this doubles team is that they have really struggled with their confidence," she says. "We've been trying to figure out what we can do with this team to make them better.

"For a team that (was) No. 1 in the country," Maes added, "you don't think, 'OK, there's things we need to do.'"

Hollands says her stint as half of the nation's top-ranked doubles team did not go according to plan.

"These last few matches that I've played, I've sort of been like, 'What happened?'" she says. "But I think I need to experience that because these last two years, I've been on a sort of roller coaster ride, in terms of everything going well and everything snowballing and getting better and better, and my ranking getting better. I think it's a bit of a reality check, I guess, and I need that."

Budding success?

After the Indoor Championships, where Arizona will compete with eight ranked conference foes, the spring schedule starts light for Arizona. Four of their first five opponents visit Tucson.

But March dates with No. 1 Stanford, No. 4 UCLA and No. 7 Southern California - teams against whom the Wildcats were a combined 3-22 in 2004 - loom large.

Hollands and Mlakar say they're ready to meet old expectations.

"We got some wins and we have our confidence back up," Mlakar says. "We also switched back to the plays we played last year. We're starting to do much better now."

The tournament's championship rounds in singles, doubles and consolation play occur Sunday.

"I have a feeling that this year, we're really going to be able to stand up to these tough teams," Hollands says. "I mean, UCLA and Stanford are ranked in the top five, and to play people like that and to actually hold our own and compete, I think that's going to be exciting."