Death, taxes and Arizona men’s tennis making it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 8th-seeded Wildcats beat NAU 4-0 on Friday at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center, winning their opening NCAA match for the sixth consecutive seasons. The UA (22-4) will take on Clemson, a 4-3 winner over Ole Miss, in the second round Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
“Getting to the second round of the NCAA Tournament is no slouch,” UA coach Clancy Shields said. “But to get a one seed, to play the four seed in the regional is huge. I’m happy we got through today. We’re gonna have a war with Clemson tomorrow, and they looked awesome today.”
Clemson (17-12) needed 3-set victories from its No. 1 and No. 5 singles players to outlast Ole Miss in a match that lasted nearly three hours. Arizona’s took less than 90 minutes, with Jay Friend, Filip Gustafsson and Alejandro Arcila each winning in straight sets to get three singles points along with the doubles point.
Arizona and Clemson faced each other at a “Hidden Dual” event in Florida in January, with the Tigers and Wildcats splitting eight singles matches and the UA winning four of five in doubles.
“It’s gonna be an absolute war, and if we don’t bring our best, then we won’t get through,” Shields said. “I think our team. they’re ready for this, but we’re gonna need to play a little better than we did today.”
A win Saturday would send Arizona to its fourth consecutive Sweet 16, but for the first time it would host. The Wildcats’ regional is lined up against the regional hosted by No. 9 Oklahoma.
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