No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis (18-5, 9-3 ACC) took down North Carolina (12-9, 6-6 ACC) and No. 15 Duke (15-7, 8-4 ACC) in weekend home games at Taube Pavilion, marking the Cardinal’s fourth and fifth consecutive 4-0 wins and remaining undefeated at home.
Friday evening’s match against North Carolina began with an early collection of the doubles point. Third doubles pair senior Max Basing and freshman Alex Razeghi won with a 6-1 score before second doubles pair sophomores Nico Godsick and Hudson Rivera won 7-5.
Rivera continued his winning momentum into his No. 6 singles match, nearly bageling his opponent and winning the first 11 games for a 6-0, 6-1 score. With 13th-ranked junior Samir Banerjee out on injury, sophomore Kyle Kang moved up to play No. 1 singles both days.
“Anywhere I am, I try to just give it my best shot, and playing one’s a nice little bonus,” Kang said.
On Friday, he collected the third point for Stanford with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 win. Graduate student Henry von der Schulenburg clinched the match on court 3 with a 6-2, 6-4 win, his 15th win of the season.
On Sunday, the Cardinal clinched an early doubles point after trailing early on with third doubles pairing Basing and Razeghi losing 2-6. Second doubles pairing Kang and von der Schulenburg picked up a 6-4 win, followed by another 6-4 win by top doubles pairing Rivera and Godsick, who improved to 5-0. Their performance over the weekend was enough to earn them ACC doubles team of the week.
Godsick swiftly took home a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 4 singles, which made the score 2-0 for the Cardinal. On court 2, Basing collected a 6-1, 6-3 win, before Rivera clinched the match at No. 6 singles with a 7-6 (2), 6-2 win.
Rivera, who went 4-0 on the weekend, called the Duke match “an insane atmosphere.” The stands were packed on Sunday afternoon, leaving no standing room in the box as late attendees were not allowed in Taube Pavilion.
“It was so much fun,” Rivera said after clinching his win. “Especially the crowd coming out, that’s what makes college tennis so fun. Everyone gets into it, and the players get that much more into it. We kind of feed off the energy.”
Stanford is now 8-2 all-time versus Duke and 3-0 all-time against North Carolina.
The Cardinal will host No. 10 Cal (18-2, 10-2 ACC) at home on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., marking both their Big Game and senior day.
Kang is looking forward to the upcoming match.
“We’re pretty close with the Cal guys. They’re a competitive team as well,” he said. “We’re not taking anything for granted.”
Rivera stated how important the crowd will be on Saturday.
“It’s going to be a huge match for us,” Rivera said. “We need everyone to come back. The fans really make the match so much more exciting.”