No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis (9-2, 0-0 Pac-12) and Stanford women’s tennis (6-1, 0-0 Pac-12) played a trio of matches this weekend at the Taube Family Tennis Center. The men’s team topped Saint Mary’s (0-6, 0-0 Pac-12) 6-1, while the women upset No. 5 Texas (8-3, 0-0 Big 12) 5-2 and beat UNLV (6-1, 0-0 Mountain West) 7-0.
Coming into the week as the No. 64 team in the country, the Cardinal women will surely catapult up the rankings in the next edition after their victory over the Longhorns. Texas, however, was the team that got off to a fast start, winning the doubles point thanks to wins on courts two and three.
Stanford then proceeded to only drop one singles match. Senior Sara Choy was the first to pull an upset, taking a 6-2, 6-0 victory at the No. 6 court. Texas then retook the lead as sophomore India Houghton fell 3-6, 4-6 on court four to Sabina Zeynalova. Junior Angelica Blake and freshman Valencia Xu then both won in three sets to give the Cardinal a 3-2 lead, putting them one match away from the clincher.Â
That fourth point would come at the No. 2 spot as freshman Alexandra Yepifanova — the No. 17 singles player in the country — pulled out a third set win 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 over Kylie Collins. No. 18 Connie Ma then finished off the Longhorns for the statement 5-2 upset.
Playing again the next day against UNLV, the women handled their business against the Runnin’ Rebels. The Cardinal did not drop a single set en route to a 7-0 victory.
After the conclusion of the women’s match, it was the men’s team’s turn to take on Saint Mary’s. Head coach Paul Goldstein made some changes to his usual lineup given Saint Mary’s early season struggles. However, the new rotation of players still performed at a high level, and the team took down the Gaels 6-1.
Freshman Max Basing and senior Alexandre Rotsaert teamed up to win 6-2 on court two, while senior Tomas Kopczynski and fifth-year Timothy Sah won 6-4 on the top court for the doubles point.
Following doubles, the Cardinal would win every singles match except for sophomore Alex Lee’s on court six. Lee and Kopczynski played the only two matches that went past two sets.
Next up on the schedule for the men’s team is a trip to La Jolla, Calif. for the Pacific Coast Doubles competition that will be played Friday through Sunday. The women will stay on campus to play Oregon on Friday at 1:30 p.m. PT.