Men's volleyball team garners tourney top spot

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior attacker Michelle Bauer (11) fights for a ball in front of the goal during a game against California-Santa Barbara. The 3-4 Wildcats are on the road for matches at UCLA and Claremont April 16-17.

The Wildcats will be placed within a pool that features Ohio State, Navy and Vanderbilt. Ohio State and Navy are ranked No. 23 and No. 24, respectively, while Vanderbilt is the lowest seed at No. 48.

The Wildcats defeated Navy 15-6, 15-11 earlier this season at the Michigan Classic.

UA, which started the season ranked No. 4 but has been ranked No. 1 for the past eight weeks, is riding a 22-game winning streak against club teams with their only losses this season coming against Division I schools.

The Wildcats hope to improve on last year's finish when they were defeated in the Elite Eight by eventual champion Graceland (Iowa) College.

UA head coach Steve Carlat believes the No. 1 ranking should give the Wildcats an advantage.

"Being ranked No. 1 will not necessarily make our road easier, but it will put us in a position to do well," Carlat said. "As long as we take it one match at a time and be prepared for a struggle, we will do all right."

The Wildcats will take on Navy at 8 Eastern time this morning, Vanderbilt at 1 this afternoon and Ohio State at 6 this evening.

Laxcats head towards playoffs

After an initially bumpy road, the trip to the playoffs became smoother as the UA Laxcats played better late in their season and secured a home playoff game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Wildcat Field against UCLA.

The Laxcats started their season with losses to four of the top six ranked teams in the country. At that point it was hard to predict whether or not this year's team would be successful.

However, head coach Mickey-Miles Felton said playing a tough schedule early was key to becoming a strong team.

"I think playing those games was a valuable experience," he said. "It will be interesting to see how we play in the playoffs since we have experience against high caliber teams."

UA defeated the Bruins 16-10 March 6.

Felton said a key to the team's success of late has been the improved play of senior midfielder Dan McCarthy.

In a team meeting two weeks ago, Felton said he made the statement that a midfielder needed to step up and take control.

"He must have been the one that heard me," Felton said. "He has played well on both the offensive end of the field and on defense, including the defensive play of the year against ASU."

McCarthy said he attributes his improved play to the realization that this is his last year of playing lacrosse for the Laxcats.

"My attitude has changed," McCarthy said. "It is sinking in that this may be the last time I get to play with this group of guys."

With a victory, the Laxcats will move on to the semifinals at the University of San Francisco next Friday. - Chris Reimer

Women's lacrosse returns to action

It's been a while since the Arizona women's lacrosse team took the field. A month, to be exact.

But despite the fact the Wildcats (3-4) haven't played since March 7 against UC-Santa Barbara, the players aren't worried about being too rusty going into this weekend's Western States Tournament at UC-Davis.

"I think we look okay," senior defender Ellen Higgins said. "We've just been looking stronger and more confident."

UA head coach Josh Dreiband said he's looking at the tournament as a chance to gain more experience going into the team's last three conference games of the season.

"It's just practice, that's all," he said. "We've got three games left and we have to win them all."

Higgins said the tournament is an opportunity to gain "a little more confidence.

"It's a chance to experiment with different things, to see what works and what doesn't," she said. "It's sort of like a preseason."

Arizona's remaining three games are also on the road, at UCLA and Claremont April 16-17 and at UC-San Diego April 23.

- Chris Jackson