STANFORD, Calif. – Senior Tom Fawcett was voted the Pac-12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week after leading No. 10 Stanford to three wins over nationally-ranked teams in a six-day span.
Stanford defeated No. 22 Tulane, 4-1, last Monday in Berkeley, California, to earn a berth in the ITA National Indoor Championships for the first time since 2012. Over the weekend, the Cardinal defeated No. 5 USC (6-1) and No. 6 UCLA (4-3) in the inaugural Dick Gould Stanford/SoCal Challenge at Taube Family Tennis Center.
Fawcett, ranked No. 101 nationally in the fall ITA rankings, defeated No. 21 Constantin Schmitz of Tulane, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 1 on Monday to clinch the team victory over the Green Wave and send Sanford to the ITA National Indoor Championships. Earlier in the match, he teamed with freshman Axel Geller to earn a win at No. 2 doubles.
In Friday's victory over the Trojans, Fawcett and Geller stormed back from a 5-1 deficit to win their doubles match and help seal the doubles point for the Cardinal. Fawcett then provided his second clincher of the week with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No. 13 Brandon Holt of USC.
While his lone blemish of the week came to the top-rated player in the ITA rankings (UCLA's Martin Redlicki) at No. 1 singles, Fawcett teamed with Geller to clinch a hard-fought doubles point with a 7-6(6) victory over UCLA at No. 2 on Sunday.
This is Fawcett's first career Pac-12 Player of the Week honor. It's the first weekly honor for the Cardinal since David Wilczynski was named the conference player of the week on April 3, 2017.
No. 10 Stanford (5-0) returns to action Saturday night, as the Cardinal faces No. 12 Illinois at 4 p.m. PT in Champaign, Illinois, approximately 150 miles from Fawcett's hometown of Winnetka.