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Pac-12 Announces Tennis Players of the Week

Feb 8, 2016
California Athletics

SAN FRANCISCO - The Conference office announced today that Billy Griffith of CALIFORNIA was named Pac-12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week and Denise Starr, a fellow Golden Bear, was voted Women's Tennis Player of the Week for action during the week of Feb. 1-7.

Griffith (Fresno, Calif.) clinched No. 24 Cal’s 4-0 rout of host and No. 26 Texas on Feb. 6 and then posted an upset at court-three singles in the Golden Bears’ 4-2 team upset of No. 2 TCU on Feb. 7. The sophomore beat the Longhorns’ Adrian Ortiz, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, at court four to clinch Cal’s win on Saturday. The 39th-ranked Griffith moved to court three the next day to best the Horned Frogs’ 24th-ranked Guillermo Nunez, 6-4, 6-4. In the win over Texas, he also paired with J.T. Nishimura to beat Rodrigo Banzer and Harrison Scott, 6-1, as Cal captured the doubles point. It is Griffith's first-career honor and the 22nd all-time for California.

Starr (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won three times in singles to help propel sixth-ranked and fourth-seeded California to the final of the ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championship, which the Golden Bears won on Monday afternoon. The Cal junior coasted to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Maria Avgerinos in Cal’s 4-0 round of 16 win over host Wisconsin. She followed that performance with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win over Virginia’s Victoria Olivarez to clinch the Golden Bears’ quarterfinal win over No. 7 Virginia. Starr then captured a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 16 Ohio State’s Miho Kowase to help Cal come from behind to beat the eighth-seeded Buckeyes, 4-3, in the semifinals. Starr also paired with Maegan Manasse to win two out of three doubles matches at ITA indoors. The third-ranked Cal duo’s victory against the Cavaliers – a 6-2 win over Danielle Collins and Meghan Kelley – clinched the doubles point for Cal. Today's weekly honor is the second of Starr's career and the 32nd all-time for the Golden Bears.

ALSO NOMINATED
Men: Thomas Laurent, ORE; Jack Jaede, USC; Egbert Weverink, UTAH.
Women:  Tina Bokhua, COLO; Shweta Sangwan, ORE; Nour Abbes, WASH; Maria Biryukova, WSU.

2016 PAC-12 MEN'S AND WOMEN'S TENNIS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

  Men Women
Jan. 18 Mitch Stewart, WASH Desirae Krawczyk, ASU
Jan. 25 Nick Crystal, USC Maegan Manasse, CAL
Feb. 1 Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA Tina Bokhua, COLO
Feb. 8 Billy Griffith, CAL Denise Starr, CAL