From the hardwood to the recruiting trail, the UA has enjoyed success in almost every sport this season.
That goes for tennis, too. The Wildcats’ men’s tennis team is 13-4 and ranked No. 18 in the country heading into Friday’s match against No. 5 Baylor (16-1) on campus.
The way coach Clancy Shields describes it, the success is contagious.
“You see what Adia (Barnes) is doing and Tommy (Lloyd) and now Jedd (Fisch), it’s like, success kind of builds on itself,” men’s tennis head coach Clancy Shields said. “Once you kind of get a little bit of momentum, it builds on itself.”
Shields believes the support from the other teams on campus is crucial to the overall brand of the program. Men’s basketball stars Kerr Kriisa and Pelle Larsson were in attendance for last week’s home victory over No. 16 Oklahoma. And Fisch even took “30 minutes out of his day” to speak with one of Shields’ recruits during their official visit.
“We’re all interconnected and I think that if we can figure that out as a department every year, then you’re going to see the success that we’re having amongst all teams,” Shields said. “I think that’s really the DNA for success is to have all teams connected and together.
“It’s so important to our culture here to have everybody pulling for each other… It’s so much fun to be a part of a department where everyone cares, is pulling for each other and the community is pulling for it.”
Shields says every coach on campus works tirelessly, making recruiting phone calls for “10 to 12 hours every day.” That resilient work ethic displayed by the other UA coaches has motivated him and his colleagues to work even harder.
“I’ll walk out of the office and see Tommy in his office at 7 or 8 and I’m like, ‘I got to get back in there. He’s getting the edge on me, you know, he’s outworking me,’” Shields said. “We almost laugh at each other if you leave before 6 p.m. Honestly, in our building, if a coach leaves before 6 p.m., we’re literally poking poking fun at that person.”
Add it to the résumé
Shields described his team’s performance at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic on Feb. 25 as a “humble pie.” After losing to Middle Tennessee and Virginia Commonwealth, the Wildcats found themselves limping back to Tucson in preparation for last Friday’s match against No. 16 Oklahoma.
The Wildcats beat OU 4-3, their second victory over a ranked team this season. The team beat No. 3 Texas on Jan. 21.
“The thing that made our program really good was that we play so hard. … We were a couple of gears off of that,” Shields said. “You have to show up every day and I think those learning experiences will help us later in the year. You can’t just show up physically, you have to show up emotionally and mentally.”
The UA-Oklahoma match came down to the final singles match between senior captain Jonas Ziverts and Oklahoma’s No. 26-ranked Mason Beiler. With the entire crowd watching from the bleachers and his teammates supporting from the sidelines, Ziverts finished the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to secure the upset win.
Struggling of late, Ziverts said he “shouldn’t have felt confident in that moment,” but the encouragement boost from his teammates and fans made all the difference.
“From the crowd, from every single player on the team and the coaches, I just gained so much confidence in the deciding set and had so much belief,” Ziverts said.
Junior Nick Lagaev filled in for breakout sophomore Herman Hoeyeraal, who was away from the team competing at the Davis Cup in Norway. Lagaev stepped up to win his singles match 7-5, 6-4.
“It was a collective effort and I’m glad that we came over the line because it was very tough for us,” Lagaev said. “I clawed my way through and I think everybody else on the team did as well and I think that’s why we won.”
