Lake Forest College men's tennis player Brett O'Brien was voted Forester Athlete of the Week on Thursday after a memorable weekend at the Midwest Conference Team Championship and Individual Tournaments.
O'Brien, a freshman, split his two doubles matches with junior Scott Drier in Friday's team tournament. They posted an 8-3 victory at #2 in the Foresters' 5-0 semifinal win over Lawrence before being edged out 9-7 in the championship, a 5-0 triumph for Grinnell College. O'Brien won the first set at #2 singles in both contests but was unable to complete either match before the prevailing teams earned their clinching fifth points.
Seeded third at #2 singles in the MWC Individual Tournaments on Saturday, O'Brien avenged a pair of regular season losses on his way to winning the title. After dropping both sets 6-2 at Grinnell on April 14 and falling 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) at Cornell College the next day, he took the rematch with both players in the same order on Saturday, winning Won 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 in the semifinals and 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the grueling final.
O'Brien's performance on Saturday and throughout the season led to his being named MWC Newcomer of the Year Sunday morning.
The positional doubles tournaments were played out on Sunday with O'Brien and Drier posting an 8-3 victory in the quarterfinals and an 8-1 triumph in the semifinals before falling 8-4 to Grinnell in the championship.
After coming out on top in six of eight matches overall on the weekend, O'Brien finished his first season with a team-high 36 victories, the sixth-highest total in program history.
Forester Athletes of the Week are selected by the Athletic Department on Thursdays.
