After defeating Princeton 4-2 in round one of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, the Arizona men’s tennis team took on the host of their region University of North Carolina on Saturday. Last season the Wildcats took out host Kentucky in round two and they looked to do the same to the Tar Heels this year.

Carlos Hassey and Gustaf Strom lost their doubles match 4-6 before Jonas Ziverts and Herman Hoeyeraal won their match 7-6 (8-6) to even up the doubles play, leaving it all down to Colton Smith and Jared Horwood. They also went to a tiebreaker but lost 6-7 (4-7), giving North Carolina the doubles point. 

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No. 53 Gustaf Strom went down 3-6, 4-6 to give UNC a 2-0 lead before No. 116 Hoeyeraal won his match 6-4, 6-3 to put the Wildcats on the board.

No. 52 Jonas Ziverts lost his match 6-7, 3-6 to No. 33 Brian Cernoch to give North Carolina a 3-1 lead. At this point, the Wildcats needed all three of Colton Smith, Carlos Hassey and Nick Lagaev to win their matches for Arizona to advance. 

Lagaev went on to lose 6-7, 4-6 to clinch the match win for the Tar Heels. Hassey was leading 3-6, 6-2, 5-2 and Smith was losing 7-6, 4-6, 4-5 when the match concluded. 

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