The Arizona men's tennis team has worked all year on becoming a better team, but starting today they will have to compete against each other.

The Pacific 10 Conference Championship begins today at the Libbey Park complex in Ojai, Calif. The tournament will run through Sunday.

"I told the players that this is their tournament," UA head coach Bill Wright said. "It is a good opportunity to get themselves on the map and for the returning players to get a good ranking for next year."

Both the singles tournament and doubles tournament have two brackets, a top flight and a collegiate flight.

Representing Arizona in the top flight are seniors Chris Jenkins and Eddie Schwartz and juniors Tom Haugland and Henrik Wagner.

Jan Anderson, Arizona's No. 1, will not be competing. Wright said the senior would concentrate on academics instead.

"Jan is staying home to catch up on his schooling," Wright said.

Jenkins, UA's captain, could put himself in a good position to make the NCAA tournament if he were to excel this week. After starting the year off 11-0 and spending time ranked in the top 100, Jenkins will begin the tournament against No. 63 Manny Ramirez of Southern Cal.

"Basically it is a huge event, so it will be fun," Jenkins said. "I always play well there (in California), but the tournament is like a small NCAAs. My guess is that the winner of this will go on to win NCAAs also."

Eddie Schwartz will begin with 87th-ranked Ornello Arlati of Washington. Haugland will open against John Devorse of Oregon, and Wagner will face Richard Rosen of Washington.

"If Henrik or Tom or Chris win the tournament, it would definitely give them a good shot at getting in," Wright said.

Wagner has been playing with a broken pinkie finger in his right hand and was forced to sit out of singles play against New Mexico State on April 17.

"The finger feels much better. I still am not completely confident with my backhand, but the finger is almost 100 percent," Wagner said.

Competing in the collegiate flight, an open flight for players that did not participate in one of the top four positions on the team, is senior Vuk Tapuskovic, juniors Mike MacKay and Jack Enfield and sophomore Roland Kupka.

In the doubles bracket, Arizona's No. 1 team of Haugland and Wagner will face UCLA's Eric Taino and Matt Breen. Jenkins and Tapuskovic will team together against UCLA's Eric Lin and Jason Thompson.

Competing in the collegiate flight of doubles are MacKay with Kupka and Schwartz with Enfield.

"It is such a prestigious event, so the quality of players is large. Even if you win in the first round, you probably beat someone ranked in the top 50," Jenkins said.

The Wildcats have the West Regional immediately following in Las Vegas on May 3. Winning the regional is Arizona's ticket to the NCAA tournament.

"This tournament will get us ready for the regionals, so it is important for the team," Wright said. "This is a very serious weekend, especially for the guys that are not coming back."