Improbably, the streak continues.
No. 7 Stanford men’s tennis, one of the most decorated programs in the nation, lost to Baylor for the tenth consecutive time, 4-3, on Tuesday at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal has never defeated the Bears in its history.
While Baylor, ranked No. 11 coming into the match, is a perennial title contender, the streak defies common logic.
“Every year, it’s been close,” said junior Alex Clayton. “Last year, it came down to the last match. It is hard to believe we lost to Baylor ten straight years.”
Stanford, which was on its own four-game winning streak, captured the early doubles point, but it wasn’t easy. Clayton and senior Richard Wire, playing in the No. 2 spot, quickly went down 8-0 before the other two matches were barely under way.
The Cardinal rebounded as the freshmen duo of Matt Kandath and Denis Lin won 8-4. The rock steady sophomore team of Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher, the top-ranked team in the nation, won 8-5 to secure the point.
“We put too much pressure on ourselves to beat them,” Klahn said. “It didn’t quite work out, but we put ourselves in a good position to win the match. We won the doubles point, but things didn’t go our way.”
Only once this season had Stanford won the doubles point, but failed to win the match. Baylor would be the second time.
First was Lin. The freshman lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1. Next to lose was Clayton, putting Stanford in a 2-1 hole.
Klahn righted the ship for the Cardinal, winning in straight sets, 7-6 (3), 6-3. The victory was Klahn’s fourth in a row, after struggling through a rough patch earlier in the season.
“I feel a lot more confident out there on the court,” Klahn said. “I knew I was still playing well, and it was just a matter of time before I started winning again. I’m serving much smarter and hitting my backhand with a better pace.”
With the score knotted at 2-2, Stanford needed two wins from Wire, Thacher and junior Greg Hirshman.
Wire, coming off a disastrous doubles performance, put up a courageous fight in his singles match, but lost a tiebreak in the second set to lose 6-1, 7-6 (5).
Hirshman had won his first set and was leading in the second. Thacher lost his first set, but battled back to win the second. With Thacher’s match farther along, all eyes were on the sophomore.
Thacher had his chances in the third set, but ultimately could not capitalize on a few big points, losing 6-4 and handing the clinching fourth point to Baylor. Hirshman went on to win 7-5, 7-6 (5).
Fortunately for Stanford, it will not have to wait long to get back on the court and wash away the taste of defeat. The Cardinal travels south for a pivotal weekend road trip against No. 4 USC on Friday and No. 9 UCLA on Saturday.
The SoCal schools traveled up to the Bay Area earlier in the year. Against USC, the Trojans won the late doubles point (singles were played first due to threat of rain) for the victory. The match against UCLA was rained out.
“We had a great road trip last week, and there’s no need to get down on ourselves over one loss,” Klahn said.
While Stanford will most likely enter the matches as the underdog once the new rankings come out, the players are not at a loss for confidence.
“We tend to bounce back well from losses,” Clayton said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we got two wins on the road down there.”
Hopefully for the Cardinal, those will be the first two wins on another long winning streak.