Seniors Lead Effort in 4-2 Loss to Stanford

Thursday, April 26

Ojai, CA

3:00 PM

University of Washington

Stanford

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

April 26, 2018 | Men's Tennis

OJAI, Calif. – Despite a strong showing from Jake Douglas and Mitch Stewart, Washington men's tennis was eliminated from the Pac-12 Men's Tennis Championships with a 4-2 loss to No. 4 Stanford on Thursday.

"Our seniors were tough and showed how they have improved over their careers," Washington head coach Matt Anger said. "I think Mitch has only one loss this year to a player outside of the top 25 and Jake has been so solid, he was due for a top-10 win. We were able to make adjustments on other courts too, but we weren't able to execute consistently with the opportunities we created."

No. 7-seed Washington (13-13) had a better performance against the No. 2-seed Stanford (21-2) in this tournament matchup than the 4-0 sweep in the final regular-season match last Sunday.

The Dawgs got off on the wrong foot in doubles, allowing the Cardinal to take the doubles point. Stanford won the sets at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles by the same 6-3 score to secure the point and the early 1-0 lead.

In singles, the Huskies bounced back. Seniors Douglas and Stewart brought their best tennis to the Pac-12 championship, both winning their matches in two sets. Douglas cruised to a pair of 6-2 wins to take his match at No. 1 singles against the ninth-ranked player in the country, Tom Fawcett. On court two, Stewart was tied 4-4 in the first before winning two-straight games to win the first set, 6-4. In the second set, he dominated in a 6-1 win to take the set over No. 74 Axel Geller.

On courts four and five, Jack Davis and Piers Foley had rough first sets, losing 6-1 and 6-0, respectively. However, they both responded in their second sets. Both of them went to a tiebreaker. Unfortunately, they both lost their tiebreakers.

Alexis Alvarez battled hard in his first set at No. 6 singles. It took a few extra games to decide a winner, but ultimately, he fell 7-5. He struggled in the second set, losing 6-3 and allowing the Cardinal to clinch the win.

After losing his first set, Enzo Sommer bounced back, winning his second set 6-4 to force a third set against No. 92 Sameer Kumar. However, his match never finished. The third set was tied 3-3 when Stanford clinched the team win.

The Dawgs will find out whether they make the NCAA tournament on May 1 in the selection show starting at 2:30 p.m. PT on NCAA.com.

RESULTS
Washington – 2
No. 4 Stanford – 4

Doubles (Order of finish: 1, 2)
1) #37 Kumar/Genender (STAN) def. Lam/Sommer (UW) 6-3
2) #24 Fawcett/Geller (STAN) def. Foley/Douglas (UW) 6-3
3) Davis/Stewart (UW) vs. Fomba/Wilczynski (STAN) 2-5 DNF

Singles (Order of finish: 1, 2, 5, 4, 6)
1) #65 Jake Douglas (UW) def. #9 Tom Fawcett (STAN) 6-2, 6-2
2) #78 Mitch Stewart (UW) def. #74 Axel Geller (STAN) 6-4, 6-1
3) Enzo Sommer (UW) vs. #92 Sameer Kumar (STAN) 4-6, 6-3, 3-3 DNF
4) Eric Fomba (STAN) def. Jack Davis (UW) 6-1, 7-6(5)
5) David Wilczynski (STAN) def. Piers Foley (UW) 6-0, 7-6(7)
6) William Genesen (STAN) def. Alexis Alvarez (UW) 7-5, 6-3