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Wildcats open season with Hawaiian vacation

After spending months in practice, scrimmages and exhibition matches, the UA women's basketball team is rewarded with a trip to Hawaii, but unfortunately, the jaunt will be more work than holiday.

While participating in the Hawaiian Regent Wahine Classic, the Wildcats will face Hawaii, Tennessee Tech and Oklahoma, while stressing the importance of beginning the regular season with impressive showings.

"We just want to play hard and play together," said senior forward Tatum Brown. "It's our first game, so we just want to come out and have a strong showing. If we go in, headstrong, mentally, we'll be okay."

Freshman guard Krista Warren agreed.

"We want to start off strong," she said. "We want to come out and win our first game because it will set the tone for the entire tournament. If we start off strong, we will continue to do good so we don't have to start with a loss and then work our way up."

UA head coach Joan Bonvicini said that she is impressed by the prospects of her opponents this weekend.

"Oklahoma is a really good team, as they are very athletic and similar to ourselves," Bonvicini said. "A year ago they were a 15-14 but they return all five starters. They will press and run like we do."

Bonvicini also said that opening the season against Hawaii and Tennessee Tech will be sound competition early in the year,.

"Hawaii is well coached and are a good team and are very, very tough when you play them at home," she added. "(Tennessee Tech) have an excellent coaching staff... and will provide a completely different look than Oklahoma."

The Arizona players said they would like to focus on committing far fewer turnovers than they did in their last exhibition outing against the New Zealand National team on Nov. 11, when the Wildcats committed 34 turnovers en route to a 70-62 loss.

"Going into this weekend, we want to minimize turnovers, playing good (defense) and be solid on our rebounding," senior guard Felecity Willis said. "If we are able to dominate in that sense, it will be our key into winning all three games."

Arizona's first game is tonight at 5:30 (Tucson time) against Oklahoma.

- Keith Carmona

Volleyball team heads north to Oregon

Call them the road warriors.

The UA women's volleyball team (16-9 overall, 10-6 Pacific 10 conference) has won its last four road matches over Cal, Arizona State, Washington and Washington State.

In fact, the young Wildcats are 5-2 in Pacific 10 Conference road matches and are on pace to set a new school record for road proficiency. No. 19 UA has finished 6-3 on the road in the past two seasons, and a sweep of Oregon and Oregon State this weekend could lift UA to a 7-2 final Pac-10 road record.

Quite a feat considering that, prior to 1997, the Wildcats had failed to finish a season above the .500 mark on the road.

"As records go, this one is pretty trivial," UA head coach David Rubio said. "It's nice to know that we've played this well all season. This will help us out, especially when playoffs come around."

Arizona's odds of defeating both the Ducks and Beavers in the same weekend appear to be good. The Wildcats defeated both teams at McKale Center earlier in the season, sweeping the Ducks and defeating OSU in five games.

History will be on UA's side this weekend. In 30 matches against Oregon, the Wildcats are 22-8. In 29 tilts against the Beavers, UA is 18-10.

- Ryan Finley

UA swimmers try

on new events today

There will be some changes in the pool this afternoon as the UA men's and women's swimming teams host NAU and UC-San Diego.

The UA swimmers will be testing their skills in other events than their specialties.

"This is probably the only time in the year where we can let our kids swim other events than their specialties, so none of the kids will swim their special events this weekend," UA head coach Frank Busch said. "They raced twice hard this weekend and we're just trying to get away from that."

The No. 2 women's team is lead by the freshman duo of Amanda Beard and Beth Botsford, while the No. 4 men's team are lead by senior Ryk Neethling and freshman Roland Schoeman.

Swimming in other events will allow the UA swimmers to prepare for the NCAA's.

"It gives us a chance to take a look at them in our things," Busch said. "You can swim three individual events in the NCAA's, so we kinda want to see what we're looking at."

The meet will begin this afternoon at two at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.

- Chris Martin

Icecats face tough home test

After facing such opponents as Colorado, Rutgers and USC, the Icecats now turn their attention to No. 5 Delaware, a game which could define the season for the Icecats.

With a record of 8-1-0, the Icecats have cruised through their games this season.

The team's only loss came when they gave up too many power play goals for the Penn State Icers in State College, Penn.

Wins this weekend would move the Icecats up in the polls, with more tough match-ups against Arizona State before the Christmas break.

"Tonight's game should be a battle," Junior center Marc Harris said. "There will be a lot of hitting and a lot of physical play."

But a loss could be devastating to this young team.

"The winner is moving up in the polls and the loser is moving down," Harris said. "We are definitely going to come out hard."

The Icecats games against Delaware take place tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 at the Tucson Convention Center.

- Joshua McClain

UA rugby team hosts Domino's Invitational

The UA men's club rugby team will begin its home schedule this weekend as they host the fourth annual Domino's Invitational, beginning tomorrow afternoon at noon when the Wildcats take on Air Force.

Returning to the lineup for UA will be All-American fullback Chris Kron, who was cleared to play in at least one half of tomorrow's match. Mike Martinez, who was suffering from a hamstring injury, will also be seeing his first action in at least one half of the match.

"We got Chris Kron back and he is an outstanding leader," UA head coach Dave Sitton said. "Kron will start at fullback, and he offers us the knowledge that we need out there."

Arizona, who is coming off a tough 34-19 loss at New Mexico last Saturday has never beaten Air Force, losing five consecutive times to the Cadets dating back to 1986.

"We made an incredible amount of mental errors against New Mexico, just dozens upon dozens," Sitton said. "We need to play better and if we play like Arizona has in the past, we should have an opportunity to win the match."

- Dan Rosen