The No. 47 Stanford men’s tennis team will battle No. 30 Washington and No. 44 Oregon on the road this weekend in the Cardinal’s first away matches since the Pacific Coast Doubles Tournament in early March.
Stanford (7-7, 0-2 Pac-12) hopes to earn its first conference win after back-to-back losses against No. 3 USC and No. 2 UCLA last weekend. The Cardinal will face off against Washington on Friday and Oregon on Saturday before returning home for five consecutive matches at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium to end the Pac-12 season.
“We’re really excited for this last month. I think we’re really getting better every day in practice, and in matches we are playing better and better,” said sophomore Robert Stineman. “Hopefully, we can have a good start to the spring quarter this weekend.”
Sophomore John Morrissey, who plays No. 1 singles and doubles, said that while the team has enjoyed playing at home, the players are looking forward to this weekend’s away matches.
“It’s really different to play away, you travel and get close with the team, and I think we are really excited to go and prove a point that we can do something away,” he said. “Obviously, it’s been great to play a lot of matches at home too, but it is just a different dimension.”
Washington, which owns a 15-6 season record and a 2-0 Pac-12 record, defeated No. 71 Arizona and No. 75 Utah on the road last weekend and is currently on a six-match victory streak. The Huskies are tied with UCLA for first place in the Pac-12 standings.
“Washington’s a great team. They’ve got a lot of good players,” Stineman said. “We’re expecting a very tough match. We’re going to go out there with the same kind of intensity we had against the L.A. schools.”
Though Washington has a 4-36 series record against the Cardinal and was defeated 7-0 by Stanford last year, the Huskies hope to benefit from their home-court advantage.
“They are a very good team with a lot of good players, and we’re playing up in their house, so we’ll see how it goes,” Morrissey said. “We’re going to take it match by match and focus on the little things, and hopefully the result will take care of itself at the end of the day.”
The Cardinal can expect a challenge from national No. 21 Kyle McMorrow, who has won his last ten matches at No. 1 singles for the Huskies. McMorrow will likely face off against Morrissey, who is ranked 54th nationally.
“I know he’s a very good player and he’s obviously had some really good results, too, so I’m just going to go out there and try to do what I’ve been working on,” Morrissey said.
Following the match against the Cardinal, Washington will host No. 21 Berkeley on Saturday. Oregon will also face off against Cal on Friday before their match against Stanford on Saturday.
While Oregon has a 1-1 Pac 12 record, with a 5-2 loss to Utah and a 6-1 win against Arizona last weekend, the Ducks have a 14-3 season record and are currently 11-0 at home.
Though the Cardinal blanked Oregon last year—and has a 26-0 series record against the Ducks—Oregon boasts an extremely strong doubles lineup this year, with 14-1, 13-1 and 10-1 records for No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, respectively. The team has not lost a doubles point this season.
“Oregon is better than they have been in years past, so they are going to be a tough team to beat,” Stineman said, noting that if the Cardinal focuses on each match and brings a high level of energy, he believes they are “going to be fine.”
Morrissey agreed, referencing Stanford’s recent victories in doubles against UCLA and USC as proof that the team can “play and beat some of the best doubles teams in the country.” Morrissey added that the team is very optimistic about their remaining matches this season.
“In comparison to the start of the season, I feel like the team has improved a lot,” he said. “The freshmen have gained a lot of experience, and we’re going to need to use that experience when we are away on the road this weekend against two very difficult schools.”
Contact Olivia Moore at omoore’at’stanford.edu.