Arizona men’s tennis team looks to celebrate the senior class in winning fashion
The Arizona men’s tennis team picked up two huge victories at home last weekend against Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley to improve to 17-5 overall, 12-1 at home and 4-0 in conference play. It was only the Wildcats second win ever against the Cardinal as senior Carlos Hassey closed out the victory.
“It was awesome,” Hassey said. “Playing in front of a big crowd is always super fun and motivates us and energizes all of us. It was definitely a lot of fun playing in front of all of them and beating Stanford and Cal for the first time since I have been here was really awesome.”
Arizona’s win over Stanford was the Wildcats’ fourth win over a top-20 team this season.
Hassey, along with Filip Malbasic and Conner Olsen will be celebrated ahead of Friday’s match against the University of Utah for senior day.
“It has meant everything to me to be part of this family for almost five years now,” Malbasic said. “It has been an incredible experience. It’s been great to be part of the rebuild of this program that we have been able to do the last five years. The trajectory from when I started to now has been very satisfying to be on that journey, but most importantly to be part of this coaching staff and the group of guys that are family to me, to share all the memories from these years, it has been great.”
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Olson talked about what head coach Clancy Shields has meant to him during his collegiate career at Arizona.
“[Shields] means everything to me,” Olsen said. “I can’t imagine playing for any other coach for four years. I have never seen a coach come out here every single day with the passion, energy, and the will to win and the care he has for every single one of his players.”
While this will be the last home match in the regular season for Arizona, there is still a chance the Wildcats host a postseason match in Tucson.
“We are going to be a top-16 team in the country and if we finish top-16 and I mean we play for a Pac-12 Championship right now and also to host the NCAA’s,” Malbasic said. “There are a lot of different reasons why the community should come out and support us.”
Arizona will host Utah in the final home match of the regular season on Friday at 2 p.m. MST.
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