By Michael Isaac Jacobs
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 27, 1998

UA tennis struggles at Pac-10 Championships

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore Vanessa Abel and teammate freshman Michelle Gough reached the finals of the Pac-10 Invitational Doubles Championship this weekend only to be dashed by the Sun Devils 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

After four first round singles losses in the Pac-10 Men's Singles Tournament on Thursday, Arizona fell in two consecutive first round doubles matches.

"We wanted to get by some first round matches, but we came up a little short," said assistant coach Bob Helmig. "But at Ojai it doesn't matter who you draw, because you are going to play tough competition no matter what."

Seniors Roland Kupka and Mike MacKay followed straight set single defeats on Thursday with a doubles loss on Friday.

In the Pac-10 Singles Invitational bracket, UA junior Pascal Salasca and sophomore Jean-Noel Lacoste were the only triumphant Wildcats.

Salasca jolted Ryan Hollis of Southern Cal with a 6-2, 7-5 lightning rod, while Lacoste thundered Jeremy Berman of Washington 6-2, 6-4.

Lacoste and Salasca both were bounced from quarterfinals singles matches, but advanced to the second round as doubles partners by eliminating an Oregon team 6-2, 6-4.

Lacoste and Salasca were joined in the quarters by freshmen Mike Huss and junior Adnan Novo, who teamed to hurdle past the first round of doubles on Thursday.

Both doubles team suffered second round losses - Huss and Novo were struck down by the Stanford duo of Geoff Abrams and Charles Hoeveler, while Lacoste and Salasca were rubbed out in a scoreboard stretching 6-4, 7-6 (5) match against a UCLA twosome.

"We had some bad draws, but is was the fourth week in a row that we were on the road, and I think that everyone was looking forward to the Regionals," said Wright.

The path to the NCAA Championships begins May 15 with Regionals.

"Everybody shifted down into a lower gear for the tournament, but we're going to shift into a higher gear for the Regionals," Wright said.

The coaching staff is planning a stiffer conditioning regiment over the next two and a half weeks before the playoffs start.

"Were struggling with confidence levels and were still hampered by some nagging injuries, but optimistically we have two and a half weeks to prepare for this (Regionals)," Helmig said. "So we will focus on conditioning and just some real quality tennis."

The women's tennis team received stellar play yesterday from freshman Michelle Gough and sophomore Vanessa Abel as they reached the finals of the Pac-10 Invitational Doubles Championship.

And then the upstart Wildcat partners ran into an old nemesis - Arizona State.

Gough and Abel fought valiantly against Sun Devils Fave Deverra and Kerry Giardino, but came up short in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 marathon.

Gough and Abel scratched into the winning column with a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Jennifer Martin and Alima Wygonowska of Oregon on Friday.

Saturday, the underclassmen handed Patrycja Gajdzik and Tamara Filipovic of Washington State a 6-4, 6-4 defeat.

Junior Monique Allegre pounced on her first two opponents with back-to back victories on Thursday.

Allegre downed both Esther Knox of California and Zuzana Stemova of Washington before being dismissed 6-3, 6-0 by No. 18 Teryn Ashley of Stanford in the quarterfinals on Friday.

UA senior Betsy Miringoff then joined Allegre in doubles competition, and the 13-3 pair climbed to the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Annica Cooper and Katia Rubanova of UCLA.

However, Miringoff and Allegre bowed out in the second round to California's Esther Knox and Anita Kurimay 7-6 (1), 6-2.