The Arizona men’s tennis team made sure that their next door neighbors to the east spent as little time as possible in Tucson as the Wildcats dispatched the New Mexico State Aggies swiftly and efficiently Saturday morning at the Robson Center to stretch their late-season win streak to three games.

The Wildcats could have been tempted to be caught looking ahead to the six remaining matches against Pac-12 opponents; but that wasn’t the case as Arizona took complete control of the match from the jump, dominating NMSU in all three courts to secure the crucial lead point going into singles play.

The doubles point wouldn’t have mattered, as the Wildcats handled the Aggies up and down the lineup as Igor Karpovets, Alejandro Reguant, and Trent Botha grabbed the singles victories, all in two sets to send the Western Athletic Conference foes back to Las Cruces. 

On a cloudy and windy morning, the Wildcats adapted to the semi-uncomfortable outdoor elements to be able to win their ninth home match of the spring season. 

With this latest win being the 15th of the year, already six more than the entirety of last season according to the team website, the upcoming matches against Utah, Washington, and Oregon, all on the road, is one that will be a true marker of where the Wildcats programs is compared to other programs in the Pac-12. 

15 wins being a great token and building block, victoires against programs that the Wildcats compete not only on the court, but off of it with recruiting would do wonders to the progress that head coach Clancy Shields has made in his short time at the helm of the program. And doing so on the road with a young team in unfamiliar situations is going to tell us a lot about this Wildcat team. 

The Wildcat men’s team will be in Salt Lake next weekend taking on their northern foe, the University of Utah at 2 p.m. MST on March 30. 

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