After dropping two consecutive matches for the first time since April 2017, the No. 12 Stanford men’s tennis team (13-4) bounced back with a commanding 4-0 victory over the unranked Cal Poly Mustangs (9-7) on Thursday. The Mustangs were on a hot streak before running into the Cardinal, having won six out of their last seven dual matches this month.
Stanford had a rough showing at home last weekend, falling to No. 19 UCLA 2-4 on Friday afternoon and No. USC 1-4 on Saturday. Though the score against the Trojans appears one sided, the match featured five tiebreakers; USC came out on top in four of those matches to grab the win on the day.
The doubles duo of juniors Jack Barber and William Genesen earned Stanford’s only win on the day with a clutch victory over Jack Jaede/Laurens Verboven (6-6 [1-0]). Barber/Gensen have become one of Stanford’s strongest doubles pairings, boasting a 12-5 record together so far this season.
Senior Michael Geneder was first off the court in singles, taking down Roman Shenkiryk (6-1, 6-1). He was joined shortly after by senior captain No. 78 Sameer Kumar, who defeated Gary Vardanyan (6-4, 6-2). After a victory in doubles by Barber/Genesen over Vardanyan/Noel (6-1), sophomore Timothy Sah provided the clincher with a takedown of Daly Meinert (6-3, 6-3), his fifth consecutive win.
The match was the team’s regular-season home finale and their ninth shutout of the season. The team heads to Salt Lake City this weekend to take on Utah (14-7) this Sunday at 1 p.m. PST.
Contact Shan Reddy at rsreddy ‘at’ stanford.edu.