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Women's tennis team prepares for NCAA's

Team heads to Southern California sub-regional

Sixty-three women's tennis teams from across the country are set to battle Arizona for the NCAA team championship.

Before the NCAA tournament, however, the No. 22 Wildcats (9-11 overall, 3-5 in Pacific 10 Conference) will have to take care of business this weekend in Los Angeles in a four-team sub-regional.

The format of the NCAA regionals doesn't directly seed every team in the tournament, but each team is assigned a ranking, which is determined by the national rankings. With the Wildcats holding down a top-25 ranking for 11 out of the last 15 weeks, they are categorized in the 21-25 bracket.

Waiting for Arizona are No. 12 Southern California, New Mexico and the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

"It's a great achievement to be ranked," head coach Brad Dancer said. "They deserve to be where they are."

The highest seeded team in the four team regional is USC (15-7, 5-2). The Trojans dominated both matches against Arizona this season - 9-0 on Jan 29 in Tucson, and 6-2 on March 10 in Los Angeles.

Against New Mexico, the Wildcats are facing a familiar opponent. The Lobos (15-11 overall, 5-3 in Mountain West Conference) lost to UA on Jan. 21, 7-2 during the Arizona Invitational.

In preparation for the weekend in L.A., practices have been limited during final examinations. Only holding full practices four days last week with an off day on Sunday, the lack of practice allows the team to concentrate on the studies and prepare mentally for the upcoming weekend.

During the off days, each member of the team met with one member of the coaching staff to work individually. Spending an hour each day, the coaches are hoping that the extra attention allowed each player to concentrate on an area of the game she needed to improve on.

"It's business as usual," Dancer said. "Everyone will have (finals) done, it's a stressful time because of exams."

In setting up the lineup, sophomore Lindsay Blau, senior Vanessa Abel and freshman Uzma Kahn will play in the top three positions of the singles lineup.

Junior Michelle Gough, sophomore Laresa Marino and junior Joanna Buczkowska will occupy the last three spots. Even though the coaching staff has rotated the lineup the entire year, the agreed lineup as been in place for the last match of the season.

In doubles play, Pac-10 doubles champions Blau and Gough will not play with each other. Instead, Gough and Abel will lead the team, followed by Blau and Kahn in the No. 2 position, and Marino and Buczkowska in the No. 3 slot. Splitting up the conference championship duo strengthens the outlook in the doubles lineup, Dancer said.

"We've only used this lineup once before," Dancer said. "Gough and Blau have had a super year, but now we are solid in all three spots."

David Stevenson can be reached at sports@wildcat.arizona.edu.

InfoBox

hedder: Up Next

May 13-14, NCAA Regionals, L.A.

May 18-21, NCAA Team Championships, Malibu, Calif.