The Arizona women's tennis defeated Utah 4-1 in the first round of the Pac-12 Championship on Wednesday โ and is about to face a much tougher test.
The Wildcats, seeded ninth in the tournament in Ojai, California, will take on No. 1 seed Stanford at noon Thursday. The Cardinal are ranked eighth nationally and defeated the Wildcats 7-0 during the regular season.
Arizona will enter that match with confidence after beating No. 8 seed Utah in a contest that was a bit closer than the team score suggests.
The Wildcats won the doubles point by winning two matches via tiebreaker. Salma Ziouti and Reece Carter defeated Madison Tattini and Anastasia Goncharova 7-6 (8), and Belen Nevenhoven and Midori Castillo-Meza clinched the point against Marcela Lopez and Kaila Barksdale by a score of 7-6 (4).
In singles, freshman Carter defeated Katya Townsend in dominant fashion, 6-2, 6-0. Another freshman, Tanvi Narendran, defeated Samantha Horwood in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. Ziouti split the first two sets with Tattini before clinching the first-round win 6-2 in the third.
It's the first time Arizona has advanced to the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Championship since 2019.
The second-seeded UA men's team will face No. 7 seed Washington at 3 p.m. Thursday in Ojai.
Arizona's Salma Ziouti clinches her match 6-1, 7-5 to help the Wildcats defeat visiting Colorado 4-1 Saturday, April 15, 2023 at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on the UA campus. Video Courtesy Arizona Athletics (via Twitter)
