AUSTIN, Texas - No. 14 Arizona suffered their first loss of the season to No. 6 Texas. The Longhorns swept the Wildcats 4-0 in the ITA Kickoff championship match on Sunday, Jan. 29. 

The Cats dropped the doubles point early on in the match losing at one and two doubles. Jonas Ziverts and Herman Hoeyeraal were defeated 6-1 by Eliot Spizzirri and Cleeve Harper, the 7th ranked doubles pair in the nation. The 6-3 loss given to Colton Smith and Jay Friend by Siem Woldeab and Pierre-Yves Bailly secured the doubles point for Texas.

Singles competition was stacked with nine players between both teams ranked in the ITA Top 125 singles players – six Wildcats and three Longhorns. It was a two hour back and forth battle in every match today where many went down to one break of serve or tiebreaks. 

At four singles, No. 54 Hoeyeraal and No. 13 Woldeab held serves back and forth until forcing a decisive tiebreak for the first set that ended in the Longhorn's favor 7-6(5). Woldeab bested the Norwegian 6-3 in the second set. Next off the courts was No. 78 Friend who lost his first set 6-2 to Harper. The freshman bounced back in the second taking it to a tiebreak set where he fell 7-6(4). And No. 30 Micah Braswell clinched against No. 117 Strom to finalize Texas' spot in Chicago's ITA Indoor Championship. The Swede fell 6-3 in the first set but persisted to a tiebreak in the second which he lost 7-6(5). 

No. 85 Smith was the only Wildcat to win one set against Texas; he defeated Bailly 7-6(11-9) at two singles to take the first set and was down 1-5 before the Longhorns clinched. No. 19 Ziverts battled No. 3 in the nation Spizzirri at one singles losing the first set 7-6(9-7) and left off one game behind at 6-5. At six singles No. 74 Nick Lagaev dropped his first set against Nevin Arimilli 6-4 and finished in a tie 5-5. 

It was a hard fought contest between the two teams who will meet again on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 1 p.m. MST in Austin, Texas. Arizona tied the series 1-1 after last year's historic 4-3 victory over the Longhorns. The Wildcats aim to take the lead in the series, but until then they are back at home to host No. 20 Pepperdine on Friday, Feb. 3 at 12 p.m. MST and USD on Sunday, Feb. 5 also at noon MST. 

Stay up to date on all things Arizona Men's Tennis by following our social media @ArizonaMTennis on Twitter and @arizonatennis on Instagram. 

Results 

#6 Texas 4, #14 University of Arizona 0
Singles competition
1. #3 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) vs. #19 Jonas Ziverts (ARIZ) 7-6 (9-7), 6-5, unfinished
2. Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) vs. #85 Colton Smith (ARIZ) 6-7 (9-11), 5-1, unfinished
3. #30 Micah Braswell (UT) def. #117 Gustaf Strom (ARIZ) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5)
4. #13 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. #54 Herman Hoeyeraal (ARIZ) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
5. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. #78 Jay Friend (ARIZ) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4)
6. Nevin Arimilli (UT) vs. #74 Nick Lagaev (ARIZ) 6-4, 5-5, unfinished
Order of finish: 4, 5, 3

Doubles competition
1. Eliot Spizzirri/Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Jonas Ziverts/Herman Hoeyeraal (ARIZ) 6-1
2. Siem Woldeab/Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. Colton Smith/Jay Friend (ARIZ) 6-3
3. Chih Chi Huang/Micah Braswell (UT) vs. Eric Padgham/Gustaf Strom (ARIZ) 5-4, unfinished
Order of finish: 1, 2