NCAA Tournament: Arizona men advance to 3rd Sweet 16 in 4 years after sweep of Auburn

What a few years ago had been history has now become the standard.

Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row and third time in four years on Saturday, sweeping Auburn 4-0 in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament at the Lanelle Robson Tennis Center.

The ninth-seeded Wildcats (26-3) will visit No. 8 Columbia (22-3) next weekend in New York City, seeking the program’s first trip to the NCAA quarterfinals.

A day after sweeping Boise State, but admittedly not playing its best, Arizona made quick work of the Tigers by winning the doubles point without a tiebreaker and then taking a trio of singles in straight sets. Only one singles match got to a third set, a big difference from Friday when all three doubles teams needed to win in tiebreakers and half the singles matches went to three sets.

“I think this was a lot closer to our kind of standard, and what we expect from our team,” said junior Colton Smith, who clinched the match at No. 1 singles with a 7-5, 6-3 victory. “There’s still a lot more room for improvement.”

Added coach Clancy Shields: “We took an L yesterday, without taking an L.”

Shields felt his team didn’t play inspired in the first round, and while he was expecting a bit of a letdown after the Pac-12 Tournament win the previous weekend he was hoping they would put on a good performance for the crowd.

“This is the first time people paid to watch you play; give them a show,” Shields said.

Arizona’s other two wins were from a pair of seniors. Nick Lagaev won 7-5, 6-3 at No. 6 for his 95^th career singles victory, passing Filip Malbasic for the school record, and Herman Hoyeraal won 6-3, 6-4 at No. 4 and finished his match first.

“I’m just a big guy who plays big. Just big serves, big forehand, trying to finish points early,” said Hoyeraal, a native of Norway who had his father and two brothers in attendance for the final home match of his college career.

It will be on different courts, but Arizona’s matchup with Columbia will allow it to return to the scene of a huge moment in the 2023-24 season. In February the Wildcats took third in the ITA National Indoor Championship in Flushing, NY, beating ranked Texas and Texas A&M teams along the way.

“That was where we found out how good this team is,” Shields said.