Pac-12 Championships
No. 3 seed Stanford (16-5) vs. No. 6 seed Arizona (17-6)
Thursday • 6:00 p.m. • Ojai. Calif.
TV: Pac-12 Bay Area • Live Results: Pac-12.com
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STANFORD, Calif. – No. 14 Stanford begins postseason play on Thursday, competing in the Pac-12 Men's Tennis Championships at Libbey Park in Ojai, California.
PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Stanford is the third seed in this week's Pac-12 Championships and will face sixth-seeded Arizona on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals. Should the Cardinal advance, it will face the winner of Thursday's matchup between seventh-seeded Washington and second-seeded USC on Friday at 4 p.m. The Pac-12 title match will be Saturday at 3 p.m.
Stanford has won 17 men's tennis conference championships in its history, most recently sharing the regular-season title with USC in 2015. Since the Pac-12 began a team conference tournament format in 2012, only UCLA or USC has won the league tournament title.
Stanford has reached the finals once in the first seven years of the conference's team tournament format, dropping a 4-3 decision to USC in the championship match of the 2015 tournament. Last season, the Cardinal reached the semifinals as the No. 2 seed, dropping a 4-0 decision to USC.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Pac-12 Bay Area will provide live coverage of Thursday's quarterfinal match between the Cardinal and Wildcats. The semifinals and championship match will be carried live on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Bay Area. Live results will also be available here. Fans can keep up-to-date with the men's tennis program by following the social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
THE RANKINGS
Stanford is ranked No. 14 in the latest ITA poll released on Tuesday. The Cardinal has been ranked in the top-15 all season. Arizona is ranked No. 26. Eight of the nine Pac-12 teams are ranked in the latest poll, including USC (No. 8), UCLA (No. 13), Arizona State (No. 28), California (No. 33), Utah (No. 46), Oregon (No. 47)
Four members of the Cardinal are ranked in the latest ITA singles poll. Axel Geller is No. 12, Alexandre Rotsaert is No. 55, Sameer Kumar is No. 104 and Sangeet Sridhar is No. 125. The doubles team of Geller and Rotsaert is ranked No. 21 in the latest poll.
Geller is one of five Pac-12 players ranked in the top-20 in the latest ITA poll, including USC's Brandon Holt (No. 10), Oregon's Thomas Laurent (No. 14), UCLA's Maxime Cressy (No. 17) and USC's Daniel Cukierman (No. 20).
THE RECORDS
Sanford enters the conference tournament 16-5 overall, completing the Pac-12 slate 5-3.
THE STREAKS
The Cardinal heads into the postseason on a three-match winning streak. Stanford owns a 71-2 all-time record against Arizona. The Cardinal has won the last 11 meetings with the Wildcats, including shutout wins in the two previous meetings.
WEEKEND SWEEP
Stanford is coming off a weekend sweep of its trip to the Pacific Northwest, earning a 4-3 victory at Oregon last Friday and a 4-1 win at Washington on Sunday. Geller, who missed the previous two matches, returned to the lineup for the weekend road trip, providing the clincher in both matches. He won a third-set tiebreaker in a thrilling come-from-behind win in Eugene on Friday.