Texas men’s tennis didn’t let this weekend’s rain extinguish its red-hot start to the spring season with a pair of dominating performances, beating No. 22 California 4-1 on Saturday and sweeping No.15 Arizona 4-0 at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center on Sunday to conclude the ITA Kickoff Weekend. 

California featured only one ranked singles player and no ranked doubles pairings, yet the Golden Bears roared into the lead, winning the doubles point against the Longhorns.

The doubles rubber match featured a dramatic win after a tiebreaker for California juniors Lucas Magnaudet and Ryder Jackson over Texas junior Siem Woldeab and reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year Pierre-Yves Bailly 7-6 (7-5). The Golden Bears’ duo went on a crucial 5-0 run to take a commanding 6-2 lead in the tiebreaker, sealing the doubles point.

With Texas facing a 1-0 deficit, Texas junior Eliot Spizzirri shifted into another gear. After being up 3-2 early in singles play, he went on a 9-0 run to win the first set 6-2 and to start the second set up an almost insurmountable 5-0 lead. Spizzirri went on to win in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2.

Shortly after Spizzirri’s win, California native Woldeab beat Cal fifth-year Siddhant Banthia 6-2, 6-4.

Longhorn junior Micah Braswell, who made his home debut, also took home a 6-4, 6-2 win.

Texas needed one final singles victory to seal the win up 3-1. While the Golden Bears threatened to get singles points, winning the two opening sets in other matches, Texas, behind redshirt Junior Cleeve Harper, won the fourth singles point with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Cal sophomore Derrick Chen.

Sunday’s shutout against an Arizona squad featuring all six of their singles players in the ITA top 125 rankings was similar to the Longhorns’ performance from the day before, but this time Texas dominated doubles play. 

Texas’ pairing of Spizzirri and Harper continued its success with a commanding 6-1 win, and Woldeab and Bailly won 6-3 over Arizona’s duo of sophomore Colton Smith and freshman Jay Friend to seal the doubles point for Texas.

While Texas won the first three singles matches to finish the sweep, the Wildcats fought hard, with five out of the eight finished sets across all six matches going to a tiebreaker. Woldeab had a back-and-forth first set with Arizona junior Herman Hoeyeraal, but he secured a 7-5 win in a tiebreaker.

After Harper’s comfortable 6-2 win in the first set, Friend forced a tiebreaker in the second set but lost to Harper 7-4. Sealing the victory for the Longhorns was Braswell, who beat Arizona junior Gustaf Strom 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). 

Up next for the Longhorns is a highly anticipated match against No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus on Sunday.