Haugland leads UA to victory

Katherine K. Gardiner Arizona Daily Wildcat UA senior Tom Haugland returns a volley to a Michigan opponent yesterday at Robson Tennis Center. Haugland won his match in three sets.

Senior Tom Haugland had a stellar performance in clinching the Arizona men's tennis team's victory over 30th-ranked Michigan (2-4 overall) yesterday in a three-set thriller after being bumped to a lower court.

"The third set was just a mental set," Haugland said. "Once I went up 6-5 (in the third set) I knew I just had to step up and not pull back."

Haugland defeated Michigan freshman Matt Wright, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (5) to improve the Wildcats' record to 5-3 overall, 0-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division.

"Both of the players played well in the tie-breaker and hit the right shots," Wolverine head coach Brian Elsner said. "It just came down to a few points here and there."

"Tom's win was terrific," UA head coach Bill Wright said. "He's been in that situation a lot of times before so his experience was a big help."

Haugland, who missed a few practices this week because he was recovering from the flu, was moved down to the third singles court.

Prior to this match, he had played in court two.

Nearly one month ago, the same thing happened to Haugland.

He dropped down to the second court after struggling in the Wildcats' top position and responded with a three-set victory that decided the match against Baylor.

The 34th-ranked Wildcats began singles play on a high note after capturing the doubles point.

Senior Roland Kupka and junior Mike Mackay won their doubles matches, but senior Henrik Wagner and freshmen Jose Devercelli and Charlie Bachtell lost, leading to the deciding match on court three.

The momentum from the win should carry over to today when UA returns to Robson Tennis Center to face No. 13 Southern Cal at 1:30 and top-ranked UCLA tomorrow at noon.

The two teams swept the Wildcats in Los Angeles last month.

"This win is huge," Wright said. "It will help tremendously because the matches this weekend are already rough enough."