Having concluded their home schedule Wednesday afternoon with an emphatic 7-0 victory over unranked Pacific, the No. 12 Stanford men’s tennis team will look to further build postseason momentum today as they travel to Berkeley for a rivalry matchup against No. 14 Cal.
The match is the final test for the Cardinal (15-7, 4-2 Pac-12) before the inaugural Pac-12 Championship—which starts on April 25 in Ojai, Calif.—and will serve as a tie-breaker between Stanford and Cal (11-9, 4-2 Pac-12) in determining the tournament’s No. 3 seed.
“All matches are important, [and] this is a Pac-12 opponent on the road, which can be challenging,” said head coach John Whitlinger. “Cal is a very good team, and I’m looking forward to a great match with them.”
Stanford has beaten Cal the last four times that the teams have faced each other, a streak the team will doubtless seek to extend. Regardless of today’s outcome, however, the Cardinal will play either Oregon or Washington in the tournament’s first round. The Beavers and Cougars play in Seattle tomorrow, with the winner clinching the tournament’s No. 5 seed.
The Cardinal soundly defeated Cal at the Taube Family Tennis Center in late February, dropping only one match en route to a 6-1 victory in the annual Big Slam match. However, the return to the Cal lineup of two starters absent from the previous match may necessitate an adjustment in tactics and diminish the psychological boost provided by the earlier victory.
“They are an entirely different team with a full lineup,” Whitlinger said. “So the match before won’t have a lot of bearing on this match.”
The Golden Bears, playing in front of a home crowd, should offer the Cardinal a stiff test. Cal is led by three players ranked in the top 60 nationally (No. 41 Ben McLachlan, No. 48 Nick Andrews and No. 58 Carlos Cueto), who will face off against a Cardinal squad led by No. 31 Ryan Thacher and No. 45 Bradley Klahn.
Both the Cardinal and the Golden Bears have struggled to string wins together in recent weeks, with both schools dismantled in back-to-back matchups against No. 1 USC and No. 6 UCLA. Today’s match retains additional significance as a means of returning to winning ways, setting the tone for the Cardinal as they enter the postseason.
“We’re going to keep the same energy from today against Cal and then take that with us down to Ojai for the Pac-12 tournament and try to finally knock off those L.A. schools,” said junior Matt Kandath after the win over Pacific. The dominant victory against unranked Pacific offers cause for optimism looking forward to the postseason.
“[Stanford and Cal] both had a tough weekend in L.A. last weekend,” Whitlinger conceded. “It’s a big match for both of us, with the Pac-12 team tournament next week.”
The Cardinal will square off against the Golden Bears today at 1:30 p.m. in Berkeley.