By Steve Fanucchi
Arizona Daily Wildcat
With a winless record in the Pacific 10 Southern Conference, the UA men's tennis team will be traveling to the Bay Area for two conference matches against the No.1 ranked Stanford Cardinal and the 21st-ranked California Golden Bears.
At 0-4 in the Pac-10 South (4-9 overall), the 46th-ranked Wildcats are in desperate need of a victory to keep their hopes alive for a shot at the postseason for the second consecutive year.
Last year the Wildcats split with the Bears, winning at home 5-2, while getting swept by the Cardinal.
The Wildcats will have an uphill battle as the Bears are 7-2 on the year. The Bears lead the series, 24-7 after defeating the Wildcats, 5-2, last year in Berkeley.
An even harder climb will be Saturday against the 12-0 Cardinal. The Cardinal has four players that are currently ranked in the ITA singles rankings which include ninth-ranked Jeff Salzenstein, 14th-ranked Scott Humphries, 39th-ranked Paul Goldstein, and 54th-ranked Jim Thomas. In doubles, the Cardinal will have the attack of the second-ranked pair, Goldstein and Humphries.
After being on the road for more than a month, the Wildcats know it will be nice to be home soon.
"We knew it would be a long, hard, tough road and all we need is one victory against one of those schools," UA coach Bill Wright said.
One thing the Wildcats do have going for them is the return of senior Sten Sumberg, who missed the previous two matches due to the return of pain in his left knee that he suffered from at the HEB Invitational.
Sumberg will be playing the No.1 position for the Wildcats with a record of 8-8.
And yes, there is one thing the Wildcat tennis team will be missing, the play of the 20th-ranked ITA singles player in the mid
country, Jan Anderson.
In the heat of mid-season the two players that are hot for the UA are peaking at the right time.
Those two players are Chris Jenkins and Edward Schwartz. Jenkins has won six out of his last nine matches giving him a record of 8-8. Schwartz has won seven out of his last nine matches and now has a record 13-8.
Schwartz is now second on the team in wins behind Anderson (23).
James Rey and Roland Kupka will return to their prospective spots in the lineup while Jack Enfield will sub for Anderson.
The Wildcats hope the Bay Area trip this year will be sucessfull and believe that they can return home with their first conference win.