Bouchelaghem Garners Second Player Of The Week

SEATTLE – Helping the Huskies to their first sweep of the Bay Area schools since 2005 netted Cesar Bouchelaghem the second Pac-12 Player of the Week award of his sophomore season. The Pallud, France native was 2-0 at the No. 2 singles spot and 2-0 at No. 1 doubles with Dzianis Zharyn. Bouchelaghem went an incredible 19-1 in his dual singles matches through the regular season, which wrapped on Sunday.
 
Then-No. 56 Washington upset Stanford, ranked 17th at the time, last Friday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center, then backed that up with a 4-3 nailbiting win over then-No. 28 California outside at the Bill Quillian Stadium in the regular season finale on Sunday. That moved the Huskies to 12-10 on the season and 3-5 in Pac-12 play and keeps them in the hunt for an NCAA tourney bid.
 
Bouchelaghem had his second Top-20 singles upset of the season on Friday as he beat 12th-ranked Nishesh Basavareddy of Stanford, 7-6, 6-3, to clinch Washington’s win over the Cardinal. It was his first match up at the No. 2 singles spot after playing every previous match at No. 3.
 
Sunday, Bouchelaghem knocked off Ryder Jackson, 6-3, 7-6, to put the Huskies up 3-1, with Zharyn eventually finishing the victory with a win at No. 3, along with a No. 5 singles win from Jim Hendrikx. Bouchelaghem and Zharyn also had a huge comeback in doubles, rallying from down 0-4 to prevail in a tiebreaker, which gave UW the doubles point that proved decisive.
 
This is the third Pac-12 Player of the Week this season for the Huskies. Bouchelaghem earned the honor on Feb. 24 and Dzianis Zharyn won on Mar. 28.
 
Washington opens up the Pac-12 Championships on Thursday against the No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats at 3 p.m. at Libbey Park in Ojai, Calif.