SAN FRANCISCO – Arizona State men's tennis senior Michaël Geerts and women's tennis freshman Lauryn John-Baptiste were named as the Pac-12 Men's and Women's Tennis Players of the Week, giving the Sun Devils their first sweep of the weekly honor in over a decade, the conference announced Tuesday.
Geerts was recognized for his performances against No. 4 Ohio State in a midweek slate and a weekend trip to the 2018 BNP Paribas College Tennis Challenge where he went a perfect 4-0 in singles play and 1-1 in doubles play with Tim Ruehl.
The senior, who has been on fire, going 10-1 in his last 11 matches, notched two upset victories this week. The first was against No. 2 Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State, who also had an ATP-high of 310 before joining the Buckeyes. Geerts handed Torpegaard a 7-6, 7-5 loss on Wednesday before rolling into the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Geerts grabbed two key victories in ASU's matchups with Southern Methodist and Tulsa to propel the squad into the championship match against Cal. The Belgian did his part for his team in the match, upsetting No. 52 Billy Griffith by a final of 6-4, 6-4 to grab a point for the Sun Devils.
In addition to his brilliant performance in Los Angeles, Geerts is riding a four-game win streak. The two ranked wins also total three on the season for Geerts, the most on the team.
The honor is Geerts' second on the season, as he netted the award last month, and the sixth in program history according to the Pac-12.
For his excellent weekend, Geerts jumped 26 spots to No. 35 in the latest the Oracle/ITA rankings this week, his highest mark in college.
The England international, John-Baptiste earned the honor for her outstanding performance this past weekend at home that included a win over the 35th-ranked woman and 28th-ranked doubles duo in the NCAA.
With the honor, she becomes the first woman this season to claim it twice and only the third Pac-12 tennis player regardless of gender to claim multiple of-the-week honors in 2018 along with Geerts and one other player from Stanford.
John-Baptiste herself soared nearly 30 spots in the latest Oracle/ITA poll to 56 for her win in straight-sets over LMU's Veronica Miroshnichenko who actually entered the weekend clash at 30 and unbeaten against ranked opponents. Both the Sun Devil and Lion freshman met on court one with unblemished records against ranked women Saturday, and John-Baptiste kept hers intact, moving to 5-0 in 2018 with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
In doubles play, John-Baptiste is half of the No. 48 squad with fellow newcomer Ilze Hattingh. Together, they have amassed an 11-0 record and have been bumped up to court one for their stellar start to the season.
The two-time Pac-12 player of the week leads the Sun Devils this weekend in Eugene as they take on the Ducks of Oregon, where she will likely face another ranked opponent on court one.
The Sun Devil men's squad returns to action this Saturday as they host non-conference opponent New Mexico.
Fans can follow this weekend's action by following @SunDevilMTennis and @SunDevilWTennis on Twitter, and the men's home match will have live stats and a live stream available at thesundevils.com.