Coming off an impressive upset of No. 6 Cal last week, Stanford men’s tennis (8-4) added another win to its record this weekend by dominating No. 8 Texas (13-4) 4-1 on Friday, before falling to No. 31 TCU (7-4) 4-3 on Saturday.

The Cardinal jumped out to an early lead after sophomores Sameer Kumar/Michael Genender and junior Tom Fawcett/senior Yale Goldberg clinched the doubles point for Stanford with wins at the third and first spots, respectively.

It looked like the Cardinal’s advantage would be short-lived after the start of the singles, as the Longhorns earned early leads in the first set on all courts. Ultimately, sophomore Jack Barber was the only Cardinal who dropped his game, as he lost his match 3-6, 4-6 on Court 4.

Stanford quickly bounced back on all courts as Kumar, junior David Wilczynski and senior Brandon Sutter all captured their first sets. Fawcett and Genender, who lost their first sets, were in control by the second. Kumar was the first Cardinal to power through on Court 2 with a 7-5, 6-4 win that put Stanford back on top.

Wilczynski and Sutter quickly followed with wins of their own on Courts 5 and 6 to complete the 4-1 upset for the Cardinal. The two other singles were halted at one set all.

Echoing their success at the Pacific Coast Doubles earlier this month, the Cardinal were able to gain the doubles point on Saturday after Kumar/Genender overcame their opponents at the tiebreaker on Court 2.

As the singles begun, it looked like Stanford was going to sweep its weekend, as Sutter and Wilczynski each provided the Cardinal with a convincing two-setter win to put the Cardinal up 3-0, within range of a shutout.

The fatigue of earlier games during the week started to hit the Cardinal players, as Kumar and Fawcett fell at the top spots after hard-fought games, allowing the Horned Frogs to come back within one.

As Genender dropped his match after a tiebreaker in the second set, the attention shifted to Court 4, where Jack Barber was fighting in the second set after being edged 7-5 in the first. TCU’s Jerry Lopez managed to come away with the point as he clinched the second set 6-4 and completed the comeback.

After going 2-1 against ranked opponents this week, the Cardinal will enjoy a two-week break before they host Illinois on March 27.

 

Contact Alexandre Bucquet at bucqueta ‘at’ stanford.edu.