CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman Bruno Alcala returns a serve against NAU, Sunday. The men travel to Tulsa, Okla., this weekend.

In its first home match of the spring semester, the No. 42 Arizona women's tennis team gave the home crowd a lot to cheer about.

The Wildcats swept the University of Texas-El Paso 7-0 yesterday at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.

Arizona won its first point with dominant wins in doubles competition. Maja Mlakar and Dianne Hollands, Arizona's one-two punch, defeated the Miners' Weronika Bloczynska and Kendall Exelby, 8-2. Juniors Stephanie Balzert and Kelly Perry, Arizona's No. 2 double squad, took care of Joanna Furdyna and Teri Wilkerson, 8-3.

In singles play, Mlakar played the No. 1 spot and held court with a win in straight sets against UTEP's Exelby, 6-4, 6-1.

Hollands, who was ranked as the No. 7 singles player in the country in the preseason, struggled in the fall, but showed no signs of it yesterday, defeating Tea Spirta in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.

JACOB KONST/Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior Dianne Hollands returns a serve to UTEP's Tea Spirta in her 6-2, 6-4 win yesterday.

Balzert beat Bloczynska, 6-1, 6-1, while Kelly Perry took care of Furdyna, 6-1, 6-2.

Sophomore Kasia Jakowlew defeated Wilkerson 6-3 in the first set, and then finished the match in the second set, 6-0.

Jessie Rochefort, one of two freshmen competing, had the longest match of the day. After battling back and forth with the Miners' Danielle King in the first two sets, 7-5 and 4-6, she flew through the third match, 6-1, to finish off the sweep for the Wildcats.

"We've come a long way in a short period of time," said assistant coach Brian Ramirez. "A tough non-conference schedule helps the girls because the Pac-10 Conference is the toughest in the country. Four of the top-10 teams in the country are Pac-10 teams."

Ramirez, a former assistant at Stanford, knows what it's like to win in the Pacific 10 Conference.

"We're going to win some games and we're going to lose some games, but the girls are going to know how to be competitive."

Being competitive is what Ramirez hopes keep them in the close matches and eventually help them win matches.

UTEP, which hasn't been ranked since March of 2002, isn't the toughest of opponents, but was a good first test at home for the Wildcats, Ramirez said.

"UTEP is not as good, which can be tougher because their players have an unorthodox style of play," he said. "They don't hit the ball as hard as our girls may like, which will make our team do different things that may throw us off our game-plan."

Debbie Larocque, a fifth-year senior and former UA tennis player, attended the match and said this year's team looks stronger overall as compared to last year.

"This team is more consistent from top to bottom, which should help in the long run," she said.

The Wildcats face No. 39 Sacramento State Saturday at noon at Robson Tennis Center. Arizona will be looking for revenge from the fall season when Hornets' No. 17 Margarita Karnaukhova defeated Hollands 6-2, 6-0 at the Riviera All-American Championships in October.

The No. 26 Arizona men's tennis team travels to Tulsa, Okla., this weekend to face two nationally ranked opponents. The Wildcats (2-0, 0-0 Pac-10) face the No. 32 Oklahoma State Cowboys (2-0, 0-0 Big 12), and the No. 60 University of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (7-0, 0-0 WAC) at the University of Tulsa Tennis Center in Tulsa.