The No. 28 Stanford men’s tennis team suffered its fourth consecutive loss this Sunday, falling 5-2 to No. 12 Cal (5-4) in a non-conference match. The Cardinal (3-5) lost to the Golden Bears for only the 17th time in the 105 times the teams have faced off.
The match started well for the Cardinal, as Stanford took the doubles point with victories from freshman Nolan Paige and junior Jamin Ball at No. 2 doubles and freshman Maciek Romanowicz and sophomore Robert Stineman at No. 3 doubles.
Stanford’s No. 1 doubles team, sophomore John Morrissey and senior Denis Lin, fell 8-4 to Golden Bears Christoffer Konigsfeldt and Campbell Johnson, currently the No. 14 duo in the nation.
The Cardinal’s lead faltered when the singles matches began. On court one, Morrissey lost 6-3, 6-0 to No. 82 Ben McLachlan.
“Personally, I was a little disappointed. I definitely didn’t serve as well as I had hoped, and that was something I had been working on for the last few weeks,” Morrissey said. “It’s just a learning experience and I’m going to hopefully work on that and have it ready for the tournament this weekend and matches next week.”
Stanford regained the lead when freshman Anthony Tsodikov beat Cal’s Wyatt Houghton 6-4, 6-3 at No. 6 singles. However, the Cardinal’s fate was sealed with the losses of the No. 2 through No. 5 singles players: Paige, Romanowicz, Stineman and Ball.
The matches were all extremely close, as both Romanowicz and Stineman had three-set battles and Paige and Ball brought their second sets to tiebreaks.
“The team showed a lot of heart, we definitely had some opportunities,” Morrissey said. “We won the doubles point and had some opportunities with singles that maybe we didn’t capitalize on, but the team fought incredibly hard and gave it our all.”
The Cardinal will have a chance for redemption on April 20, when it will play Cal at home in a match that will count for the Pac-12 conference standings.
Morrissey is hopeful that they will clinch a victory, as he said that the team has been improving throughout the season.
“At the end of the day, we are still a very young team,” Morrissey said. “We are just gaining experience with every match and we’re getting better with every match, so when they come over here in a month’s time we’re going to be ready, hopefully.”
The Cardinal is on the road again this weekend, traveling to La Jolla, Calif., to compete in the 124th annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Tournament. Stanford players have claimed the title in the past two years, as Bradley Klahn ‘12 and Ryan Thacher ‘12 took back-to-back victories. The tournament will feature some of the best collegiate players in the nation.
“It is a prestigious event. It is the oldest tournament in the United States and there have been some great names that have won that tournament, so it is really tough competition,” Morrissey said.
According to Morrissey, the tournament often involves two or three doubles matches a day. Morrissey said the event is an opportunity to work on “some things we might not get to work on” in a regular match situation, where the main concern is often the singles matches or the team’s total.
“La Jolla is always a fun event,” Morrissey said. “We usually don’t really get to focus solely on doubles, so it’s a nice event and it’s something a little different.”
Contact Olivia Moore at omoore ‘at’ stanford.edu.