Little brothers getting pushed around — and sometimes beat up — by their older brothers is just a reality of life. The University of Arizona’s men’s tennis team reaffirmed this on Saturday morning as they opened up their home double-header by sweeping their in-state rival and geographical sibling, Northern Arizona University, by a score of 4-0.
The Wildcats jumped on the Lumberjacks early by beating them to the doubles point. Captains Jonas Maier and Alejandro Reguant wrapped up the points with a convincing 6-2 win against NAU’s Felix Schumann and Chris Steele in the lone frame.
In the second half of the double-header, Arizona faced off against an undefeated Nebraska squad. The Wildcats stellar doubles play early on continued as it propelled them to take the all-important early lead on the visiting Huskers. Maier and Reguant linked up once again to help give Arizona the nudge in the right direction, while UA’s freshman duo Igor Karpovets and Carlos Hassey won their match 6-4 on court one.
“We have been 1-7 in doubles play going into this weekend, and we won both of [today’s matches], so that’s an improvement,” men’s head coach Clancy Shields said.
The back end of the rotation for the Wildcats came through when they needed them most as Maier, Malbasic and Reguant took care of their foes in two sets. The wealth of experience allowed Arizona to pick off easy points and secure a strategic and hard-fought battle against their foes.
“Two quality wins, I am happy for the guys, but we just need to keep getting better. Hopefully we are peaking in April during Pac-12 play, so these are good wins, but we have to keep our eyes on the prize ahead of making a dent in the conference,” Shields said.
As the men’s team celebrates their bounce-back weekend, they will soon have to look ahead as they have two tournaments throughout back-to-back weekends starting with the Blue Gray Classic, which will take place in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Wildcat men’s next home match will be a Pac-12 tune-up against UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday, March 6. The Pac-12 opening weekend will follow days later.
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