Men's tennis team earns first conference win

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior Michel Stopa returns a ball during his doubles match Saturday afternoon against California at the Robson Tennis Center. Stopa won the deciding match for the UA men's team, which defeated California 4-3 Saturday but lost to No. 4 Stanford 6-1 Friday.

It was up to UA junior Michel Stopa to defeat Cal's Scott Kintz to give Arizona its first win in Pacific 10 Conference play this season.

"It was exciting that it came down to my match," Stopa said, and that excitement carried over as Stopa defeated Kintz 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Stopa played tough until the end despite a nosebleed from the heat.

"It was even more exciting since it was our first Pac-10 win of the season," he said.

The 4-3 win means UA is now 6-8 overall and 1-5 in Pac-10 play after the victory at the Robson Tennis Center Saturday afternoon.

The intensity on Saturday did not die down until the last game was won.

UA beat Cal on the Golden Bears' turf last year, which was a first in a long time for any Arizona team, said UA assistant coach Bob Helmig.

"After a great win against Cal we as a team need to keep going strong against upcoming teams such as Irvine, Oregon and Washington," he said.

UA senior Adnan Novo defeated Chris Santoso 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 1 spot. On the second court UA junior Jean-Noel LaCoste lost to Adrian Barnes 6-2, 4-6, 4-6. UA senior Pascal Salasca beat Erik Dmytruk on court No. 3. UA freshman Caleb Marquardt took Hiro Nakamura 3-6, 6-0, 6-4, while UA freshman Jari Niskala was defeated by Cal's Chris Lewis on court No. 6 6-3, 2-6, 1-6.

UA was defeated by No. 4-ranked Stanford (9-1, 4-0) 6-1 Friday.

There wasn't much to be said about the match against Stanford, LaCoste said.

"They are a really great team," he said. "They lost a lot of their top guys last year, but still seem to be on top."

Stanford swept all but one match. Niskala defeated Ali Ansari 7-5, 7-5 at the No. 6 spot.

"As a team we wanted to get as much out of the Stanford match as we could," Helmig said. "It was a great practice for Saturday."

The players seems to believe in themselves more after the Cal win, Stopa said.

"It all comes down to how much you want it. We want it," he said.

Katie Fonken can be reached at Katie.Fonken@wildcat.arizona.edu.