After a long weekend that saw the Stanford men’s tennis team drop a pair of matches, the Cardinal proved it was not suffering from a hangover on Tuesday, dusting off Hawaii by a score of 6-1.
Needing a big win after falling to USC and UCLA on Friday and Saturday, the No. 9 Cardinal (5-2) started off the day the right way by blowing through the Rainbow Warriors in doubles. Behind an 8-5 win from the duo of freshman John Morrissey and senior Ryan Thacher, coupled with a pair of 8-4 wins from juniors Matt Kandath and Denis Lin and sophomore Jamin Ball and freshman Robert Stineman, the Cardinal swept its way to an early 1-0 lead.
The Cardinal didn’t encounter much trouble after that either, even with ace player Thacher sitting out the singles matches. Stanford’s tennis quality was highlighted by especially strong performances from Morrissey and Stineman in singles. Stineman was the first off the courts with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win over Carter Lam, with Morrissey following shortly after by cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Nils Schuhmann.
Ball, playing at the No. 5 spot, wrapped up the Cardinal win as early as possible when he blew past Jared Spiker, 6-2, 6-0.
Lin, who was the only Cardinal player not to end up in the win column, was the next to finish, and then Kandath, who toughed out a 7-5, 6-4 win over Dmytro Kovalyov, the Rainbow Warriors’ No. 1 player. Junior Walker Keher rounded out the day for the Cardinal with a third-set tiebreak win over Danilo Casanova.
Stanford now has two days to rest up for another big contest, as it welcomes No. 52 BYU to the Farm on Friday for its only match of the weekend. The Cougars (3-4) are coming off consecutive blowout victories against Idaho State and Montana State, but only after they lost their last four matches. So far, the Cougars have fallen to every ranked opponent they have played this season, including No. 9 UCLA, No. 36 Vanderbilt and No. 52 Cal Poly.
After the Cougars come to town this weekend, the Cardinal has only one more home match before it heads to Charlottesville, Va., for the National Team Indoor Championships the next Friday.
The Cardinal and the Cougars will face off Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Taube Family Tennis Center.