The No. 36 Cardinal men’s tennis team (2-2) showed no signs of a hangover from tough back-to-back losses a week ago, returning home for a convincing 6-1 win over UNLV (0-2) at Taube Family Tennis Stadium on Saturday.
The winless Rebels offered the Cardinal a chance to bounce back from losses to difficult opponents in both No. 13 Florida and No. 29 South Carolina, and Stanford firmly took advantage, showcasing its depth throughout its entire starting lineup.
Although seniors John Morrissey and Robert Stineman dropped their first doubles match of the dual season as they lost soundly 6-1 to Jakob Amilon and Denys Pume on Court 1, the bottom of the order outlasted their respective Rebel pairs to bail them out.
Freshman Tom Fawcett and junior Maciek Romanowicz evened up the doubles contest with a gritty 7-5 win, and juniors Nolan Paige and Trey Strobel were soon to clinch the point for the Cardinal with a 7-5 triumph.
Given that Stanford’s last-season propensity to fall short in doubles and end up in an early hole was a noted area to improve on, the Cardinal’s resilience, demonstrated by battling back and winning the point on Courts 2 and 3, was very promising this early in the year, even against a lesser opponent like UNLV.
After the doubles point was clinched, the remainder of the match went just about as smoothly as the Cardinal could have hoped, with Romanowicz ending up as the only member of the squad to drop his match — a relatively even three-setter that was decided long after the Stanford victory was secure. It was Romanowicz’s third consecutive defeat, even after he was lowered to the No. 3 spot after losing both of his matches last weekend in the No. 2 slot.
The rest of Stanford’s lineup dispatched the Rebel opposition handily, with none of the Cardinal’s victories even making it to a third set. Sophomore Yale Goldberg in particular was impressive in the No. 6 spot as he broke into the singles lineup for the first time this dual season, playing in place of ranked freshman David Hsu and handing UNLV’s Ozzie Abraham a 6-1, 6-0 defeat that was over in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, Fawcett continued to impress in his inaugural college season with a 6-2, 6-4 contest on Court 1 that improved his singles record to 3-0 in dual play and a remarkable 15-4 overall. He’s continuing to climb the rankings, as he’s listed as No. 25 nationally in singles in the latest poll and the Cardinal’s only ranked singles player besides Hsu.
Morrissey, freshman David Wilczynski and Paige wrapped up the Cardinal’s romp with relatively uneventful wins on Courts 2, 4 and 5. Wilczynski’s victory was the clincher in the match.
Stanford will next get an interesting draw against unranked BYU, which has taken advantage of a laughably easy schedule as of late and hasn’t allowed a point to an opponent since a Jan. 19 loss to No. 62 Tulane. The Cardinal and Cougars will clash at 2 p.m. at Taube on Saturday.
Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.