Tennis on Campus Championships - Southwest
Scottsdale Ranch Park - Scottsdale, Ariz.
February 17-19, 2012
One was fun, and two was still new, but thrice proved to be super nice for University of Arizona on Sunday, as the Wildcats proved again in 2012 that they are the cream of the Southwest Tennis on Campus crop, doing so by making the championship an red-white and blue affair.
After reaching the finals and coming up short (to rival Arizona State) in their first-ever year as a Tennis on Campus program in 2009, Arizona has put the Southwest’s championship event on lockdown. Bad news for their Southwest foes, the Wildcats don't appear to be willing to give up the key anytime soon.
On Sunday, the Wildcats only competition...was the Wildcats themselves as both their A and B squads squared off for the title, with the B squad winning the championship 28-22.
Per Tennis on Campus Southwest rules, schools can have multiple teams at the championship event, to help fill out draws and encourage play in the program, which is now in its fifth year in the Southwest. The multiple-team per school allowance at the Section Championships only proved to be more beneficial for the Wildcats in 2012.
Arizona took three of the four spots in the semifinals, with their A, B and C squads...the other being Arizona State’s top squad.
Two schools from the Southwest automatically qualify for the USTA National Tennis on Campus Championships, so Arizona and Arizona State will now move on to represent USTA Southwest at the national event at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C., April 12-14.
Four other schools besides Arizona and Arizona State also participated in this year’s championship event, including Northern Arizona University, University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and University of Texas-El Paso. Teams played pool play on Friday and most of Saturday to determine semifinalists, before picking up bracket play on late Saturday and Sunday.
Arizona State1 finished in third place, downing Arizona3 30-12. For full results see results listing below.
A special thanks goes out to Scottsdale Ranch Park and their staff for accommodating the three days of play and for serving as our host site for the event for the second consecutive year. Another thanks goes out to USTA Southwest Section President Paul Burns who came out on both Friday and Saturday to watch the event and mingle with the teams.
Also, special thanks to all the school captains for organizing their schools’ respective clubs and the teams themselves for appearing at the event. The level of play and club sophistication is growing by leaps and bounds each year, and the Southwest Campus Series events leading up to the Section Championships seem to be steadily growing as well.
Good luck to our teams as they move on to the USTA National Championships in April!
2012 USTA SOUTHWEST TENNIS ON CAMPUS CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Friday - Round 1
Pool 1
Arizona State1 30, Northern Arizona2 4
New Mexico State1 – bye
Pool 2
Arizona1 30, Northern Arizona1 4
University of Texas-El Paso2 – bye
Pool 3
Arizona 2 30, New Mexico1 12
Arizona State3 27, New Mexico State2 16
Pool 4
Arizona3 30, University of Texas-El Paso1 9
Arizona State2 28, New Mexico2 16
Saturday Round 2
Pool 1
New Mexico State1 24, Northern Arizona2 13
ASU1 – bye
Pool 2
Arizona 1 - bye
Northern Arizona1 30, UTEP2 13
Pool 3
New Mexico1 26, Arizona State3 22
Arizona2 30, New Mexico State2 1
Pool 4
Arizona3 27, ASU2 18
UTEP1 25, New Mexico2 19
Saturday - Round 3
Pool 1
Arizona State1 28, New Mexico State1 16
Northern Arizona 2 - bye
Pool 2
Arizona1 30, UTEP2 2
Northern Arizona 1 - bye
Pool 3
New Mexico1 30, New Mexico State2 8
Arizona2 30, Arizona3 12
Pool 4
UTEP1 21, Arizona State2 20
Arizona3 30, New Mexico2 10
Pool winners:
Pool 1: ASU 1 (2-0); Pool 2: Arizona 1 (2-0); Pool 3: Arizona 2 (2-0); Pool 4: Arizona 3 (2-0)
SATURDAY BRACKET SEMIFINALS/Finals
Gold semifinals: UA 2 26, ASU1 23; UA 1 28, UA3 14
Silver semifinals: UTEP1 28, Northern Arizona1 22; New Mexico State1 30, New Mexico1 8
Bronze Semifinals: ASU2 30, UTEP2 3; ASU 3 27, Northern Arizona2 18
Copper Finals (13th place): New Mexico 2 30, New Mexico State2 8
SUNDAY
CHAMPIONSHIP: Arizona2 28, Arizona1 22
Third place: Arizona State1 30, Arizona3 12.
Fifth place: New Mexico State1 30, UTEP1 12.
Seventh place: New Mexico1 26, Northern Arizona1 18.
Ninth place: Arizona State2 27, Arizona State3 16.
11th place: UTEP2 25, Northern Arizona2 15.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The USTA Southwest championship team winner and runner-up (school) receives an automatic bid as the Southwest representative at the USTA Tennis on Campus National Championships held at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C., April 12-14, 2012.
Click HERE to see the weekend schedule of play.
Tennis on Campus, which is offered at virtually every major university in the nation, is a program on the rise, especially in the Southwest.
With more club teams participating across the country, the program has increased in participation exponentiallly, now touching more than 30,000 students at just over 500 universities in the United States.
FORMAT
The World TeamTennis format consisting of a 6-game short set (first to 6 games win by two, or a 9-point tiebreaker at 5-all) in each line of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Team match winners are determined by a games-won format (total won).