THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Maxime Cressy closed the tournament portion of UCLA's season with a win, capturing the singles consolation championship at the 2018 Sherwood Collegiate Cup.
Cressy, who beat Baylor's Akos Kotorman in the first round of the consolation draw, had a run on Stanford Cardinal opponents the rest of the way. The junior topped Michael Genender Saturday, setting up a semifinal pairing with Timothy Sah Sunday. Like his first two matches, Cressy needed just two sets to dispatch Sah, rolling to a 6-2, 6-4 victory and a spot in the final.
One more member of the Cardinal stood between Cressy and the consolation championship, as David Wilczynski advanced due to a No. 11 Johannes Schretter injury. In an evenly-matched opening set, Cressy eked out a 7-5 win to move one set away from the championship. Holding the edge, Cressy put Wilczynski away in a convincing fashion, 7-5, 6-2.
In the singles main draw, No. 108 Keegan Smith's run came to an end in three sets against No. 101 Tom Fawcett of Stanford. Smith, who previously defeated Fawcett in the Jack Kramer Collegiate Tournament final, jumped out to an advantage with a first-set win. Fawcett would not let Smith capture another, though, as he advanced to the final with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 decision.
Doubles action also continued Sunday with a pair of Bruin duos in the semifinals. Connor Hance and Connor Rapp ran into the top-seeded team of Michael Genender and Sameer Kumar, however, and the Stanford pair would prove too much, 6-3. On the bottom of the bracket, the second-seeded Austin Rapp and Keegan Smith team's run would also come to an end, as USC's third-seeded Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven earned a 6-2 win and eventual championship.
In another match played Sunday, Austin Rapp defeated Constantin Frantzen of Baylor, 6-1, 6-4.
Next up for the Bruins is the dual-match season, which begins Thursday, Jan. 18 with a doubleheader. The Bruins will host George Washington at Los Angeles Tennis Center in a morning match (10:00 a.m.), before returning to the courts to take on Grand Canyon in an afternoon tilt (2:30 p.m.).