The Stanford men’s tennis team, coming off four consecutive impressive victories, heads up to the Pacific Northwest this weekend to take on the highly-regarded Washington Huskies on Friday and the Oregon Ducks on Saturday. The No. 9 Cardinal (12-5, 2-1 Pac 10) is coming off commanding wins against No. 29 San Diego, No. 56 Arizona, No. 31 Tulsa and No. 13 UCLA.
The current winning streak for Stanford is all the more impressive since it has come after an uncharacteristically sloppy stretch of play in which the squad dropped three straight matches, albeit against the very stiff competition of No. 3 USC and No. 16 Baylor. The Stanford men’s tennis team, accustomed to such a high degree of success, is not used to surrendering many matches let alone three in a row. The fact that the squad has been able to bounce back so effectively speaks volumes about the resiliency and resolve of head coach John Whitlinger’s group.
The Washington Huskies, ranked No. 22 nationally, are in the midst of their own losing streak, having dropped their last three matches. As the Cardinal now knows though, this fact just means that the Huskies will be hungrier than ever for a chance to defeat their Pac-10 rivals. The Cardinal has long been a vexing opponent for Washington—the two longest tenured Huskies, seniors Tobi Obenaus and Martin Kildahl, have never defeated Stanford. This Friday presents their final chance to do so.
Under head coach Matt Anger, now in his 17th season, the Huskies have been a model of consistency, never once missing the NCAA Championships while coming out of the always-competitive Pac-10 conference. The Huskies are in good position to make the tournament again this year—which will be held at Stanford’s Taube Tennis Center at the end of May—and will try to make it back to the round of sixteen, which they have done an impressive five times since 2000.
Saturday’s match will see the Cardinal in Eugene, Ore. to take on the pesky No. 70 ranked Oregon Ducks. The Ducks finished their final road-trip of the dual-match season in Los Angeles last weekend, and now are returning home for a season-ending three-match homestand. The Ducks didn’t play their best tennis in L.A., losing a very close match to Loyola Marymount before getting blown out by Pac-10 stalwarts USC and UCLA. The Ducks will be looking for some conference revenge this weekend when they take on Cal at home on Friday before Stanford comes calling on Saturday.
The Ducks are anchored by three key newcomers: freshmen Robin Cambier and Alex Rovello and junior transfer Baptiste Faynot. The two freshmen at the top of their singles lineup have been impressive this year, holding a combined 21-14 mark in dual-match singles play. As many of Stanford’s opponents have been this year, the Ducks team is made up primarily of foreign players, with France and Belgium being the home countries for most of the Oregon squad.
Stanford has six dual matches remaining before the madness of the Pac-10 championships and then the NCAAs begin. This weekend’s trip will mark the final time this season that the Cardinal will be traveling outside of the state of California—the important, final road trip for the seniors on the team. The Cardinal is looking to make this final road trip the beginning of a successful start to the end of their year.