OJAI, Calif. – No. 4 Stanford erased a 2-1 deficit with wins at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 to earn a 4-2 victory over Washington Thursday afternoon at Libbey Park and advance to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Men's Tennis Championships.
The No. 2 seeded Cardinal, which posted its second victory over the Huskies in as many matches, will face No. 3 seed USC in the conference tournament semifinals on Friday at 4 p.m. PT.
Stanford continued is best season since 2001, improving to 21-2 overall with its sixth consecutive victory.
Stanford claimed the doubles point against Washington the same way it clinched the point against the Huskies five days prior, with Tom Fawcett and Axel Geller winning at No. 2 and Michael Genender and Sameer Kumar winning at No. 1, both winning by 6-3 margins.
UW seized momentum from there, however, handing the Cardinal rare defeats at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. It's the first time all season Fawcett, ranked No. 9, and Geller, ranked No. 74, lost in the same dual match and only the fourth time in dual play the Cardinal dropped matches at either of the top two positions.
Senior David Wilczynski put the momentum back in Stanford's favor with a hard-fought win at No. 5. After cruising to a 6-0 first-set win, he battled Washington's Piers Foley to a second-set tiebreaker. The Cardinal senior prevailed, 9-7, in the tiebreaker for his sixth consecutive win and more importantly tying the match at 2-2.
Fomba took a similar route to his win at No. 4, posting a 6-1 win in the opening set and fighting through for a 7-5 second-set tiebreaker win to down Jack Davis of Washington. The graduate student's seventh consecutive victory put Stanford back ahead, 3-2.
Moments later, Genender provided the clincher with a 7-5, 6-3 victory at No. 6, for his third clinching point of the season.
With Thursday's win, Stanford has now advanced to at least the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Championships in six of the seven years of the conference's team tournament format.
No. 4 Stanford 4, Washington 2
Doubles
1. No. 37 Sameer Kumar/Michael Genender (STAN) d. Kawika Lam/Enzo Sommer (WASH) 6-3
2. No. 24 Tom Fawcett/Axel Geller (STAN) d. Piers Foley/Jake Douglas (WASH) 6-3
3. Eric Fomba/David Wilczynski (STAN) vs. Jack Davis/Mitch Stewart (WASH) 5-2
Order of Finish: 2,1
Singles
1. No. 65 Jake Douglas (WASH) d. No. 9 Tom Fawcett (STAN) 6-2, 6-2
2. No. 78 Mitch Stewart (WASH) d. No. 74 Axel Geller (STAN) 6-4, 6-1
3. No. 92 Sameer Kumar (STAN) vs. Enzo Sommer (WASH) 6-3, 4-6, 3-3
4. Eric Fomba (STAN) d. Jack Davis (WASH) 6-1, 7-6 (5)
5. David Wilczynski (STAN) d. Piers Foley (WASH) 6-0, 7-6 (7)
6. Michael Genender (STAN) d. Alexis Alvarez (WASH) 7-5, 6-3
Order of Finish: 1,2,5,4,6