The men's tennis team plays its first home match of spring after a full slate of fall tournaments on the road, as the Wildcats battle NAU Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.

The UA will be far from full strength when it takes the court, as four players will be missing.

The team's top two players, junior Roger Matalonga and senior Colin O'Grady, will be playing at a Palm Springs tournament. Also, junior Daniel Andrus is injured and freshman Claudio Christian, a hard-hitter from Switzerland who will join Arizona for the spring semester, doesn't arrive until Tuesday.

"I think we'll be fine," O'Grady said. "We feel we can beat NAU with the team we will have."

The match will allow Arizona's stable of freshmen to gain match experience.

"We're going to have a few people gone, so we're counting on freshmen stepping up and some people from last year so hopefully we won't have any problems," O'Grady said. "We still have (senior) Paul (Warkentin) and he's the true leader of the team. This guy gets the team pumped up with his antics on his court."

Even without his fellow team leaders, Warkentin said he's looking forward to playing NAU.

"I guess I'll be the lone senior," he said. "It's a good chance to start the year with another win. Maybe it's a good thing because we've got a contingent of freshmen. It's a good opportunity for the freshmen to show what they have."

The Lumberjacks return six players from last year's squad, which Arizona swept 7-0. Juniors Jeremy Coll, Jonas Jegers, Jamie Maxwell and Thibault Scram will lead NAU.

"We won't take them lightly," Warkentin said. "They're a talented team, and they've got some foreigners who can strike the ball.

"I think the key is young guys realizing they have to step up. We're missing four guys so people need to step up and we can't take them lightly," Warkentin said.

History will be on Arizona's side. The Wildcats hold an 18-1 all-time record against the Lumberjacks.

"I sure as hell don't want to be part of the team that gives them the No. 2 win against us," Warkentin said. "This is one of those matches we really want to make sure we set the tone early, get up big and take that and run with it."

Warkentin said it's "real important" to beat up on all of Arizona's in-state rivals.

"It's one of our goals to start the year," he said. "We always want to beat up on the Jacks and the (Arizona State Sun) Devils. The Devils are more well-documented, but one of the goals is to sweep all three matches against in-state Arizona schools and then move on to the California schools.

"But it starts with beating in-state rivals," he said. " If you can't get up for a match like that than you don't deserve to play college tennis."