For the second time this season, the ninth-ranked Arizona men’s tennis team finds itself in the Big Apple.

The first time, the Wildcats took down No. 3 Texas and No. 12 Texas A&M at the ITA Indoors event at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. On Saturday, the Wildcats (26-3) take on No. 8-ranked Columbia (22-3) at Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center, also in New York, as part of the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

“We showed up as tourists in February and had a nice result, but you can tell the mood is different this trip when we showed up (Tuesday) night,” said Arizona head coach Clancy Shields, who was recently named Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the third straight year. “We looked at Manhattan and said, ‘Let’s go to (New) Jersey and focus on what we came here to do.’

Arizona’s Gustaf Strom runs to the sidelines after winning a set against Auburn’s Billy Blaydes in their second round NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament matchup on May 4 in Tucson.

“It’s going to be an unbelievable test,” he added. “But I think our guys are ready, we got (semester) finals in the rear view now, so we’re just focused on coming out here and hopefully pulling off the upset.”

Columbia has “talent from top to bottom, and we’re going to have our hands full.” The Lions are led by star sophomore Michael Zheng, who has a 58-18 singles record in the last two seasons. Last season, Zheng became the first player in Ivy League history to win Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and receive first-team All-Ivy honors in singles and doubles in the same season.

“I think it’s going to be a total team effort from top to bottom, and we just have to find four points,” Shields said. “We’re just going to chip away at it.

“Not try and do any crazy math, but each guy has to do it on every court.”

The red-hot Wildcats have won nine matches in a row dating back to late March, including the Pac-12 Tournament championship; Arizona became the first non-California team to win the conference tournament. Arizona swept 20th-ranked Stanford for the conference tournament title, then swept Boise State and Auburn last week in Tucson to begin NCAA Tournament play.

“We’ve had three sweeps in a row, so our team is feeling very confident,” Shields said about the Wildcats, who are 14-2 in road or neutral-site matches. “There’s some special sauce we have whenever we go on the road. The guys gel together and we seem to perform well on the road, so we’re looking forward to this road trip.”

Arizona’s Herman Hoyeraal pumps his fist after his win over Auburn’s Raul Dobai in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament on May 4 at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.

Shields joined ESPN Tucson’s “Spears and Ali” this week to talk about Arizona’s path to the Sweet 16, the team’s cooking on the road and the battle with Columbia, among other topics. Here’s a snippet of that interview, which can be found on the Spears and Ali podcast platforms.

How did you build Arizona into a team consistently finding success in the postseason?

A: “I was lucky to talk to (football head coach Chris Peterson) when he was at Boise State before he went to Washington and I asked him, ‘How are you guys doing this at Boise?’ In my time as a student, they were 50-3 as a football program and he was somebody I really wanted to learn from.

“So when I asked him that question, he said, ‘Every year, we try to reinvent ourselves and try to do something different than what we did the year before.’ Even though the makeup of our team has pretty much stayed the same over the last couple of years, we just try to reinvent ourselves, and we’ll have to do the same thing next year.

“Take some of the things that you did really well from the season and carry it on, but how can we make it better?

“That’s been the secret sauce: we don’t get complacent, we’re going to keep trying ways to recruit better and develop our players better.”

How did you reinvent yourselves as a program?

A: “That was the challenge that I presented to the guys: ‘When is Arizona tennis going to fall off? Is it going to be on your watch?’ Guys were like, ‘Uh, heck no, it’s not going to be on our watch.’ We just challenged the guys to not have a drop-off this season and we’re going to keep pushing this forward and moving our program in the right direction.

“In the fall, we had a storming phase where the guy were trying to find the voice and the team identity, and there was a lot of fighting within the team with the direction we wanted to go in, and I think what we really found with our success this year is everyone has accepted each other in their own way and we’re not trying to fit everyone into one shoe box.

“Everyone is completely different and we accepted each other as our own individuals and each person goes about it their own way, but we come together as a group.”

Arizona’s Eric Padgham is happy after he and Herman Hoeyeraal defeated Auburn’s Will Nolan and Tyler Stice in No. 2 doubles in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament on May 4 in Tucson.

What’s your message to your team heading into the Columbia match?

A: “The hungry dog hunts best. That’s why we’ve been able to keep our focus in the postseason, not getting complacent.

“We’ve gotta be hungry, we’ve gotta fight to get to (Stillwater, Oklahoma) on the final side. As cheesy as it sounds, I grew up in the ‘Livestrong’ era where everyone had those yellow bracelets, so I ended up getting these guys bracelets, these silicon things they put on their arm, and every couple weeks, I put a new message on them. The newest message is ‘Stillwater’ (a reference to Stillwater, Oklahoma — site of this year’s NCAA championships).

‘This is the final site — the elite of the elite — and you want to be in the Top 8 and go to the final site where anything can happen. I hope they look down on that from time to time when they’re playing realize that the job isn’t finished. This is the goal we’ve been working towards this year, and I hope it motivates them to give their best this week and push through the final site.”

Arizona men's tennis player Colton Smith defeats Auburn's Tyler Stice 7-5, 6-3 to clinch the Wildcats' victory over the Tigers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on the UA campus in Tucson. (Courtesy Arizona Athletics)

Arizona men's tennis doubles tandem Herman Hoeyeraal and Eric Padgham defeat Auburn's Will Nolan and Tyler Stice 6-3 to give the Wildcats the early advantages in doubles play Saturday, May 4, 2024. Arizona would win the doubles point, and go on to defeat the Tigers 4-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on the UA campus in Tucson. (Courtesy Arizona Athletics)

Arizona men's tennis doubles tandem Sasha Rozin and Gustaf Strom defeat Auburn's Billy Blaydes and Nicholas Heng 6-3 to clinch the team doubles point for the Wildcats Saturday, May 4, 2024. Arizona would win the doubles point, and go on to defeat the Tigers 4-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on the UA campus in Tucson. (Courtesy Arizona Athletics)

Arizona men's tennis player Herman Hoeyerall defeats Auburn's Raul Dobai 6-3, 6-4 to give the Wildcats' their first singles' victory of the day over the Tigers. Arizona cruised to a 4-0 win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on the UA campus in Tucson. (Courtesy Arizona Athletics)


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Contact Justin Spears, the Star’s Arizona football beat reporter, at jspears@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @JustinESports