The most-anticipated college tennis match ever in Tucson was a hot ticket, so much so they had to print out more just to accommodate all the people who wanted to watch Arizona try and make history on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
And after more than three hours, the Wildcats finally broke through.<\/p>\n
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Arizona rallied from down 3-1 to beat Oklahoma 4-3 in the NCAA Men\u2019s Tennis Sweet 16 at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center, advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. The 8th-seeded Wildcats (24-4) will face top-seeded Wake Forest, the defending NCAA champions, in the quarterfinals Thursday in Athens, Ga.<\/p>\n
Arizona had lost in its previous four Sweet 16 appearances, including three in a row, but this was the first time it got to host.<\/p>\n
But with temperatures nearing triple digits, the UA found itself in a position where it needed to win every remaining singles match. No. 9 Oklahoma (20-7) had taken the doubles point and won in straight sets at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, with Arizona\u2019s lone win to that point by sophomore Glib Sekachov (6-2, 6-2) at No. 5 singles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got down 3-1 and I think the guys just said, you know what? This is destiny,\u201d UA coach Clancy Shields said. \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to happen this year. We\u2019ve been to the Sweet 16, but we haven\u2019t gotten any further. You saw how the guys buckled down to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Arizona began to turn a corner when it won first-set tiebreakers in two of three matches, including senior Jay Friend 8-6 at No. 1 singles after being down a break to Oklahoma\u2019s Luis Alvarez. Junior Sasha Rozin started the comeback at No. 3 singles, winning 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4).<\/p>\n
Friend lost his second set 7-5, and freshman Alejandro Arcilo did the same 6-4 at No. 6 singles after winning the first 6-4. Arcilo then fell down a break before going on a tear, winning the last three games to take the third set 6-4 and even the match at 3.<\/p>\n
After a brief celebration, the entire UA team\u2014and the crowd of 500-plus\u2014migrated around Court 1 for the deciding set between Friends and Alvarez.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been in that situation so many times, and he looked cool as a cucumber, and I think everybody knew when it came down to his court \u2026 we might as well start booking tickets,\u201d Shields said. \u201cHe\u2019s not gonna lose that match.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Friend made quick work of his opponent, winning 6-0 and finishing with an ace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just entered a flow state that I\u2019ve never been in before,\u201d said Friend, the winningest singles player in school history. \u201cThe guys kept telling me it\u2019s never going to come down to you because I play too fast, but it did. And I\u2019ve been in this position before, and the last time I lost 7-6 in the third so obviously I was fighting those demons a little bit, but the guys did their job, and that took so much pressure off me, and then 6-0 in the third set to clinch. That\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remainder of the NCAA Tournament will be held at the Dan Magill Tennis Center in Athens, with quarterfinals Thursday, semifinals on May 16 and the championship May 17. At No. 8, Arizona has the second-lowest seed remaining behind No. 10 Baylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re really dangerous,\u201d Shields said. \u201cThis is a team that has accomplished their main goal, and now they\u2019re hunting for something else, and they\u2019re playing free, and we\u2019re gonna play free down there in Athens. I think our team\u2019s gonna have the most fun, and they\u2019re playing with the least amount of pressure. And that\u2019s a dangerous squad. And I think our team also knows how good we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most-anticipated college tennis match ever in Tucson was a hot ticket, so much so they had to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[382,7,217,90537,90538,231,772,1544,310,76849,25637],"class_list":["post-730347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-arizona","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-lanelle-robson-tennis-center","tag-luis-alvarez","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-oklahoma","tag-school-history","tag-sweet-16"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116548404758222913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}