Arizona's Colton Smith moves on to NCAA tennis quarters as UA softball team cheers him on in Oklahoma

Even still, Colton Smith had one of the largest, most boisterous cheering sections on hand at Oklahoma State University’s Greenwood Tennis Center Wednesday morning as he competed in the second round of the singles draw at the 2024 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships.

The Arizona junior, ranked No. 22 nationally, defeated No. 16 Nishesh Basavareddy of Pac-12 counterpart Stanford 7-6(2), 6-2 — the second day in a row Smith took down a higher-ranked opponent. This time, the win earns the Tenino, Washington, native a trip to the quarterfinals as one of the bracket’s final eight still standing.

After winning the opening set via tiebreak, Smith played a clean, relatively error-free second in closing out Basavareddy. As Smith piled up the points (and games), the support from his own personal cheering section — players, coaches and support staff from the UA softball team, similarly on a business trip to Stillwater with a best-of-three series to come this weekend at OSU in the Super Regional of their own NCAA Tournament — became louder and louder.

The UA softball program arrived in Oklahoma earlier this week direct from Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Arizona swept its tournament-opening regional last weekend. The Wildcats’ trip to Oklahoma State just happened to coincide with Smith making his own run through the field in the same locale, located about 60 miles from Oklahoma City.

Smith’s next test comes Thursday morning at 11 a.m. local time in Stillwater (that’s 9 a.m. back in Tucson) — and it’s a familiar one. Smith takes on No. 11 Murphy Cassone of ASU with a berth in the bracket’s Final Four on the line. He’ll also have a shot at some revenge against a maroon-and-gold-clad rival, as Cassone defeated Smith 6-3, 6-3 in Tucson in early April (though Arizona won the match as a team, 4-2).

The match between Smith and Cassone can be streamed via ESPN+.