Men's soccer club gets good win, damaging loss on same day

Arizona Daily Wildcat

The good news for the Arizona men's club soccer team is that it won an important game Saturday. The bad news for the Wildcats is that they lost an important game Saturday, too.

With the A-team faced with the opportunity to play a German youth professional team in Tucson, Arizona decided to send its B-team to Phoenix to play a conference game against Arizona State.

The result? The A-team won, the B-team lost.

In essence, the Wildcats lost the game that counted and won the game that didn't. But UA coach Ron Fox felt he did what was best for the team.

"(That was done) to give the 'A' players experience against some extremely good players," Fox said, noting that each of the players on the German team were signed with clubs in Bundesliga, a German professional league. "Really it was a test. It was also to develop their ideas and develop them as a team. Sometimes we gamble with taking certain players up and leaving certain players behind. I'm not too upset by the result."

Against the Sun Devils, the Wildcats' Che Mconico scored two goals, but Arizona still lost the important conference match by a 3-2 score.

"Our defense was a little bit pourous Ä there were lots of holes on defense," Fox said. "That means we have to beat ASU at home and NAU in our final two conference games in order to go to the regionals."

At the same time back in Tucson, the A-team was slipping by the 17-year-old German team. Wildcat Nick Seward scored in the first half, then Charlie Kendrick scored from the kick-off in the second for Arizona.

Germany's Aric Grad scored with 20 minutes left in the contest, but the UA ultimately prevailed, 2-1.

Said Fox: "We had good performances from everybody, worked very well as a team. We denied them the opportunity to come forward with the ball. We got around the ball quickly, they had to pass it wide and we got around it again."

The 14th-ranked Arizona volleyball team won its first match since Sept. 24 Saturday night, beating Washington in four games (6-15, 15-12, 15-8, 15-7).

The Wildcats hit .292 for the match, that lasted one hour and 58 minutes.

Washington (9-7 overall, 4-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) hit .199, led by a match-high 15 kills from Dragana Djordjevic.

In winning, Arizona (8-4, 4-3) broke its streak of two consecutive matches in which it failed to win at least one game. The Wildcats were swept in three games Sept. 30 at Arizona State and in three games Friday night at Washington State.

Melissa Ferris and Barb Bell led Arizona with 18 kills apiece. Michelle Fanger had 14 digs and three blocks.

Friday night, the Wildcats lost to Washington State in three games (8-15, 7-15, 10-15).

Arizona begins its first homestand since Sept. 24 with a match against Stanford on Friday at 7 p.m.

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The UA women's golf team is in Redmond, Wash., today for the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational Tournament, hosted by the University of Washington.

The three-day tournament will be played at Sahalee Country Club and includes 18 teams from Western universities.

The UA enters the contest coming off its second straight top 10 finish this season after placing fifth at the Nike Invitational in Oregon. Arizona was led by freshman Heather Graff, who placed 10th individually. Graff has started her college career with a bang, finishing in the top ten in her first two tournaments.

"(The Nike Invitational was) a good learning experience," UA coach Kim Haddow said. "We like the course, but we realized we need to practice playing in the wind."

The UA will return to Corvallis, Ore., in April for the Pac-10 championships.

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