UCLA
Sherwood Collegiate Cup
Bruins Head to Sherwood Collegiate Cup
January 10, 2018 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES -- The Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. will play host to the first action of 2018 for the UCLA men's tennis team. The Bruins are one of four teams sending eight players to the Sherwood Collegiate Cup, with Baylor, Stanford and USC the others.
Singles play begins Friday at 9:00 a.m. PT. Doubles action starts Saturday.
In store for the Bruins, Bears, Cardinal and Trojans is a 32-player singles tournament, as well as a 16-team doubles competition. The draw for each was announced Wednesday, with Johannes Schretter of Baylor and the Stanford duo of Sameer Kumar and Michael Genender taking the top spots.
UCLA will be represented in the field by Maxime Cressy, Ben Goldberg, Connor Hance, Bryce Pereira, Reid Ponder, Austin Rapp, Connor Rapp, Keegan Smith and Evan Zhu. Zhu (No. 5), Smith (No. 6) and Cressy (No. 8) found themselves seeded in the singles draw, while the team of Austin Rapp and Smith was selected as the No. 2 seed for doubles play. Smith won five straight singles matches to close out his first fall campaign, while Cressy is on a four-match winning streak of his own.
In his first UCLA action since being named a Second-Team All-Pac-12 honoree as a freshman, Zhu will take on Jake DeVine of USC Friday. Smith, who posted a UCLA-best 12 wins in the fallโincluding a Jack Kramer Collegiate Tournament titleโwill take on fellow freshman Akos Kotorman of Baylor in his first-round matchup. Cressy, with a Larry Easley Memorial Classic championship under his belt, will look to continue his success against Jimmy Bendeck of Baylor.
With a chance to take on top-seeded Schretter in the second round, Goldberg will face off with Stanford's Eric Fomba in his opening match. Freshmen Pereira and Hance will take on a pair of Baylor first-year foes in Matias Soto and Roy Smith, respectively. Austin Rapp will face USC's Matt Smolicki, while his brother, Connor, will do battle with William Genesen of Stanford.
In doubles, Austin Rapp and Smith will get what they hope is a long run started against Fomba and Genesen of Stanford. The pair of Bellamy and Ponder, meanwhile, will encounter a tough first-round challenge in top-seeded Kumar and Genender. An upset victory could set up an all-Bruin second round, as the tandem of Pereira and Cressy will also face the Baylor team of Bendeck and Constantin Frantzen in the top quarter of the bracket.
The team of Connor Hance and Connor Rapp will see Baylor's Schretter and Smith in the first round. Goldberg, who won a Bruin-best five doubles decisions, will join 2017 ITA All-American selection Zhu in an all-Los Angeles first-round matchup against Jack Jaede and Jake DeVine of USC. Goldberg joined Austin Rapp to win the Flight 1 doubles title at the San Diego Fall Invitational in October.
Players Mentioned
