Seven members of the Stanford tennis program were named to the All-Pac-12 teams, which was announced Tuesday on the Pac-12 News website.
The headliner of the group is sophomore Michaela Gordon, who was named Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year. A year removed from taking home Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year, Gordon earns Stanford’s 15th all-time Singles Player of the Year honor after posting a 22-9 overall record and 13-1 in-conference record on the season in singles. The honor also earns Gordon an automatic qualification into the 2019 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Singles Championships, which will kick off on May 20 in Orlando. Gordon is only the second student athlete in conference history to win all three major Pac-12 postseason honors, as she also earned earned Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year honors last year alongside junior Emily Arbuthnott, who also earned an at-large selection into the singles championships.
Arbuthnott earned a spot on the conference’s second team after earning honorable mention honors as a sophomore last year. The No. 44 ITA nationally-ranked singles player, she led the Cardinal in total wins this season with 31, posting a 12-2 in-conference record in singles.
Stanford players took three of the six spots on the 2019 Women’s Tennis All-Pac-12 Team; joining Gordon are seniors Melissa Lord and Caroline Lampl, who each ended their time with the Cardinal in impressive fashion. Ranked No. 66 nationally, Lampl heads into the NCAA Round of 16 weekend riding a 22-game win streak. She is also the Cardinal’s winningest active player with 105 career victories.
Ranked No. 29 nationally, Lord boasts a 24-9 record on the season as well as a 16-1 all-time postseason record that includes the Cardinal’s 2018 championship clincher against Vanderbilt. Lord was also one of the 49 at-large selections for the NCAA singles championships to be held later this month.
Sophomore Axel Geller headlined the group of men’s tennis honorees and was named a First Team All-Pac-12 selection after taking home second-team honors last year. Geller ended the season ranked No. 13 nationally despite sitting out multiple matches last month with injury. Though Geller posted a 17-9 record, he took on some of the nation’s top players over the course of the season, including Ohio State’s No. 2 JJ Wolf, Virginia’s No. 3 Carl Soderlund and Florida’s No. 9 Oliver Crawford, who he defeated twice this season, first during the ITA Men’s All-American Championships and once again in dual match play in February.
Named to the All-Pac-12 Second Team, freshman Alexandre Rotsaert was snubbed Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honors. The award went to California’s Yuta Kikuchi, who posted a 20-14 record on the season; meanwhile, Rotsaert’s 23-10 record saw him win more games and lose fewer matches than Kikuchi, all while playing at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on a top-15 team ranked twelve spots ahead of the Golden Bears.
Junior William Genesen rounds out the list after posting a 22-9 record this year. Genesen takes home honorable mention honors and ends the season ranked at No. 91 nationally.
The No. 3 Stanford women’s team (24-1, 10-0 Pac-12) hosts No. 14 Kansas (21-4, 7-2 Big-12) on Friday in the NCAA Round of 16 at Taube Family Tennis Stadium; the No. 12 men’s team (19-6, 5-3 Pac-12) heads to Charlottesville, Virginia for a matchup against No. 5 Virginia (23-4, 10-2 ACC) on Saturday.
Contact Shan Reddy at rsreddy ‘at’ stanford.edu.