Not even the heavy rain over the weekend could prevent the success of Stanford men’s tennis — in fact, the Cardinal avoided it altogether when they smashed BYU on Friday night in a 6-1 drubbing.
The weather forced changes in both the time of the match and the venue, with the contest moved from Taube Family Tennis Center to Bay Club San Francisco Tennis, an indoor venue, and from 2 p.m. Saturday to 10 p.m. Friday night — a ludicrously late 11 p.m. start in BYU players’ local time.
Not that it likely mattered, anyway, as the outcome of the match was never really in doubt. Stanford took the doubles point without much competition, as freshman Tom Fawcett and junior Maciek Romanowicz won their match 6-1 on Court 2 before sophomore Yale Goldberg and freshman David Wilczynski finished off their match on Court 3 by a score of 6-2 to quickly clinch the point.
The singles wins rolled in almost as easily after that, with Wilczynski winning on Court 3 6-0, 6-1 and senior Robert Stineman cruising 6-2, 6-1 on Court 6 before Fawcett, the 25th-ranked singles player in the nation, clinched on Court 1 with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Senior John Morrissey and junior Nolan Paige quickly followed with victories of their own before Goldberg dropped the only singles match of the day for the Cardinal in a third-set tiebreak.
Wilczynski and Fawcett both improved to 4-0 in duals this season as singles players, with all of Fawcett’s having come in the No. 1 slot and Wilczynski having picked up a victory apiece at the Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 slots. Meanwhile, the Fawcett/Romanowicz duo improved to 4-1 in doubles this dual season and 8-1 overall and have now won three doubles matches in a row.
Stanford will next take on Sacramento State at home at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.