University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Cressy, Smith Headline Pac-12 Honorees
May 07, 2019 | Men's Tennis
SAN FRANCISCO – The UCLA men's tennis pair of Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith was voted Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year and three Bruins collected All-Conference accolades, the conference announced Tuesday.
Individually, Cressy and Smith were voted to the All-Pac-12 First Team. Govind Nanda secured a spot on the Second Team. Cressy-Smith's selection as Doubles Team of the Year represents the fourth straight year a UCLA tandem has earned the award.
Entering Friday's NCAA super-regional match at Baylor, Cressy-Smith holds a 16-0 dual-match record playing exclusively on Court 1. The pair has clinched five doubles points, with three of those decisions coming as the last court standing. Often the first court to finish, Cressy-Smith has surrendered three or fewer games on 10 occasions. The duo's highest-ranked win of the season came Feb. 8, when it blanked eighth-ranked Jacob Brumm and Yuta Kikuchi of California. Ten of Cressy-Smith's victories have come against nationally-ranked opponents, elevating its own ranking to No. 2 and earning the pair All-America status in the process.
On the top singles court, Cressy is 14-3 with a 5-3 mark against nationally-ranked foes. The senior knocked off No. 8 Axel Geller on March 29 to clinch a road upset of Stanford. A near-impossible comeback from 3-6, 0-5 against Kikuchi the next day sealed Cressy's second Pac-12 Player of the Week award of the season and fifth of his career. Cressy has clinched a team-high five matches this season, including each of the Bruins' NCAA Championships triumphs. He received Honorable Mention recognition from the conference in 2018.
Smith is riding a 12-match winning streak and has dropped just two decisions in dual-match play. Overall, he sits at 23-5 with four match-clinching wins while playing solely on Court 2. The San Diego native posted his most noteworthy performance in UCLA's biggest team win yet, defeating No. 13 Daniel Cukierman as part of the Bruins' 4-3 defeat of crosstown rival USC on April 5. He also partnered with Cressy to beat No. 14 Brandon Holt and Riley Smith and clinch the doubles point. Smith made the All-Pac-12 Second Team in 2018.
The team leader in singles dual-match victories with 17, Nanda has been a stalwart on Court 3 in his debut season. A pair of top-75 wins in February elevated the freshman into the rankings, where he has made a home since. Nanda went on to win 11 of 12 decisions from Feb. 23-April 25. In doubles play, the Redlands, Calif. native has formed a reliable partnership with Connor Rapp on Court 2. The pair won four straight matches—including three against Pac-12 opponents--from March 29-April 13.
