Just like in last week’s Pac-12 Tournament Championship match, Arizona senior captain Nick Lagaev clinched victory for the ninth-seeded Wildcats on Friday afternoon in front of a packed house at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.
The Wildcats defeated Boise State 4-0 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“It felt good to finally be on our home courts again,†Lagaev said. “It is always special to play the NCAA Tournament here.â€
For the second consecutive season, the Wildcats swept the visiting Broncos 4-0 to open NCAA Tournament play in Tucson. Saturday afternoon, Arizona will try to advance once again to the Sweet 16, by way of a second-round matchup with Auburn at 1 p.m. on the UA campus.
The Wildcats took an early 1-0 lead Friday by winning the doubles point in thrilling fashion with all three matches going to a tiebreaker.
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Herman Hoeyeraal and Eric Padgham won their match first, taking the tiebreaker 7-4 over Jett Middleton and Caden Moortgat. Just a few moments later, Colton Smith and Jay Friend, recently named the top doubles team in the Pac-12 this season, overcame being down a break, 6-5, to force a tiebreaker; they won 7-2 to clinch the UA doubles victory.
“Congrats to our guys for being clutch in the clutch moments,†Lagaev said. “It shouldn’t have been three tiebreakers, probably not, but it is what it is. We pulled through.â€
The common theme among the team after the match was how they could have played better and didn’t play their best tennis.
“Once we get into a tournament and we’ve got some miles under our belt, we feel we always play a little bit better,†UA associate head coach Alexander Free said. “It’s tough to get out and this is our first match here in a little bit. For us to get out here and to get a win under our belts, I’m hoping that we respond well and improve on what we need to do on Saturday.â€
Arizona got off to a blazing start in singles play, winning the first set on Courts 2-6, led by Jay Friend, who took his first set 6-0.
Friend gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead, defeating James Van Herzeele of Boise State 6-0, 6-3 on Court 2 for the first singles victory of the day.
Casper Christensen followed for Arizona, defeating Middleton 6-3, 6-2 on Court 5 before Lagaev closed out the match.
Auburn edged Pepperdine 4-3 Friday in Tucson in the early matchup. The Tigers (18-10) needed a three-set clincher from freshman Nicholas Heng over Pepperdine’s Zach Stephens to secure the opening-round win for the SEC champions.
Arizona last faced Auburn in 2023, falling to the Tigers 4-2 at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Alabama.
“We got a really tough task on our hands (on Saturday),†Free said. “Auburn is a good team. They are a veteran squad, really well-coached so we’re going to have to raise our level and go play our style of tennis to be successful and try to move on.â€
Arizona enters Saturday’s match riding an eight-match winning streak and winners of 20 of its last 21 outings.
A UA win Saturday could result in one of two Sweet 16 options for the Wildcats: Either Arizona will hit the road to New York City to face eight-seeded Columbia, or Arizona would stay home and welcome Michigan next week in Tucson. The Lions and Wolverines play Saturday at 10 a.m. at Columbia.
Other Pac-12 victors on the tournament’s opening day Friday included UCLA (4-3 over LSU), ASU (4-3 over Georgia) and Stanford (4-0 over SMU). All 16 national seeds — No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Virginia, No. 4 TCU, No. 5 Kentucky, No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Columbia, No. 9 Arizona, No. 10 Florida State, No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 12 Harvard, No. 13 Duke, No. 14 NC State, No. 15 Texas A&M and No. 16 Mississippi State — won on their home courts Friday to open tourney play.
Fifteen of the 16 national seeds swept their opening matches 4-0; Florida State (a 4-1 winner over North Florida) was the only seeded team to cede a single team point Friday among national seeds.