Malibu, Calif.- The Cats had an amazing weekend at the ITA Southwest Regional tournament this weekend. No.23 Colton Smith [2], No.87 Jay Friend [8], No.99 Herman Hoeyeraal [11], No.92 Nick Lagaev [9], No.50 Gustaf Strom [4], Sasha Rozin, Casper Christensen [17], Iñaki Cabrera-Bello [17], and Eric Padgham represented Arizona at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
The Wilcats racked up a total of 34 wins, 27 of them being in the main draw of both doubles and singles. Two of these victories rewrote program history as Colton Smith was awarded singles champion and joined partner Jay Friend in receiving doubles champions. Arizona was in it to win it from the beginning.
They started off strong with day one containing 9 singles and 2 doubles victories. Momentum only continued as the cats racked up more and more wins in both main and back draw matches. Things began to look good for Arizona as the Wildcats had two pairs of partners reach the quarterfinals. Smith/Friend and Cabrera-Bello/Strom were blazing through the competition surpassing their opponents, GCU 8-4 and UC Irvine 8-4.
Smith and Friend continued their winning streak changing program history by making it to the final round in doubles and getting their tickets punched for the ITA Fall Men’s Nationals for doubles. They didn’t stop here, after defeating No.23 Sharrma and Vasa [1] (USD) 6-4, 6-2, they added one more little detail to this weekend. This dynamic duo dominated Homberg and Edward [6] 6-3, 6-3 to earn themselves the ITA Southwest Regional Doubles Championship. Smith however, was not done there.
Following was the equal success Arizona was gaining throughout singles matches. Hoeyeraal and Smith advanced the quarterfinals in singles with respective wins taking down No.63 Wojtek Marek (USC) 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 and Lambert Ruland (USD) 6-2, 6-2 to reach this point in the competition.
Smith continued to blaze through the competition earning himself a spot in the finals round, also punching his ticket to the ITA Fall Men’s Nationals. After taking down No.61 Pablo Masjuan [6] in a straight-set victory 6-3, 6-3, Smith rightfully took his title as the ITA Southwest Regional Singles Champion. Smith continued to write history not only getting as far into the draw as he did but winning the whole tournament without dropping any sets the entire…
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