The Pac-12 honored Arizona's Clancy Shields as its men's tennis Coach of the Year Thursday, with six Wildcats also earning conference first-team, second-team, or honorable mention honors for their play during the UA's championship 2023-24 season.
Shields' Wildcats are 24-3 so far this season, winning a share of the Pac-12 regular season championship, while winning outright the program's first Pac-12 Tournament championship, too.
Shields has won the award three times in his eight years at Arizona. He was also the conference's coach of the year in 2019 and 2021.
The Wildcats have been ranked as high as No. 5 this season, and enter Friday's NCAA opener at home as the ninth seed in this year's 64-team bracket. They face Boise State at 1 p.m. at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on the UA campus.
Other Wildcats honored Thursday:
• Colton Smith, Jay Friend and Gustaf Strom were named first-team All-Pac-12
• Nick Lagaev and Herman Hoeyeraal were named second-team All-Pac-12
• Casper Christensen earned all-Pac-12 Honorable Mention honors
• Smith and Friend were named the Pac-12's men's Doubles Team of the Year
Coincidentally, even with their doubles recognition, Smith and Friend have earned invitations to compete in singles play at the the upcoming NCAA championships.
Smith finished this season ranked No. 20 in the ITA Singles Rankings with a 29-9 singles record, while Friend is ranked No. 34 with eight wins over ranked opponents.
“We had so few players go to the NCAA Tournament before these guys have shown up here,” Shields said. “It is so hard to do it as an at-large bid.”
When Friend arrived as a freshman last year, he opened on the No. 6 singles court for Arizona and in just one year, he has risen to become a top-35 singles player in the country.
“That just speaks to our coaching staff and our players,” Shields said. “The guys get better in our program and we have to get better in our program. We’re not going to outrecruit a lot of teams and we know that and that’s okay, but we’re going to out-develop them and that’s what we’re really proud of.”
— Ari Koslow contributed to this report.
Arizona's men's tennis team learns on Monday, April 29, 2024, that it's the ninth overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament. For the second year in a row the Wildcats will host a regional on the UA campus at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center, and also for the second straight year face Boise State. Boise State is coached by Luke Shields, brother of Arizona coach Clancy Shields. (Brett Fera/Arizona Daily Star)
The Arizona men's tennis team won its first-ever Pac-12 Tournament championship Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Ojai, California, with a 4-0 win over Stanford. (Courtesy Pac-12/Arizona Athletics)
The Arizona women's tennis team learns on Monday, April 29, 2024, that it has made the field for the 2024 NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament field. Arizona will travel to College Station, Texas, for the opening rounds. It's the Wildcats' first NCAA appearance since 2014. (Brett Fera/Arizona Daily Star)
