Men’s tennis falls to UCLA in second round of Pac-12 Championships

Freshman Michael Genender (above) saw his match on Court 2 abandoned as the Cardinal took the doubles point but couldn't do any singles damage against the Pac-12 champion Bruins. (SAM GIRVIN)
Freshman Michael Genender (above) saw his match on Court 2 abandoned as the Cardinal took the doubles point but couldn't do any singles damage against the Pac-12 champion Bruins. (SAM GIRVIN)
By Do-Hyoung Park
April 24, 2016, 11:29 p.m.

Though Stanford was able to grab the doubles point from UCLA for the third time this season, No. 32 Stanford (14-10, 4-3 Pac-12) once again couldn’t match the No. 2 Bruins (21-2, 7-0) in singles as the Cardinal dropped their second consecutive 4-1 decision to UCLA, knocking them out of contention for the Pac-12 Championship title.

Four-seed Stanford, which advanced to the final of the Pac-12 Championship last year before losing 4-3 to USC, will find out where it stands in the NCAA tournament field when the bracket is revealed later next week. After beating Stanford in the semifinal, the top-seeded Bruins went on to topple Cal to win the tournament.

Stanford claimed the doubles point behind another strong outing from Tom Fawcett and Maciek Romanowicz on Court 1, upsetting the No. 5 pair in the country of Martin Redlicki and Mackenzie McDonald, 6-2. David Wilczynski and Nolan Paige quickly followed with a 7-5 win of their own on Court 2 to give Stanford the 1-0 advantage.

However, it was all UCLA from there in singles. Paige dropped a quick 6-2, 6-2 decision on Court 4 and freshman Sameer Kumar also fell in short order, 6-3, 6-1, on Court 6, to hand UCLA the match lead. In a top-10 individual battle of McDonald (No. 10 nationally) and Fawcett (No. 12) on Court 1, Fawcett’s powerful game struggled to find consistency against McDonald, who went on to claim the 6-4, 6-3 victory. The result marked Fawcett’s second loss to McDonald this season after the latter had claimed a 6-3, 7-5 win earlier this year.

Gage Brymer of UCLA provided the clincher on Court 3 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Wilczynski, who has now dropped five of his last six decisions to close the season. Of Stanford’s six singles players, only Romanowicz (unfinished on Court 5) was able to win a set from his counterpart. Freshman Michael Genender was trailing 5-7, 3-4 on Court 2 when his match was abandoned.

Stanford should still be in good position to qualify for the 64-team field of the NCAA tournament, which will begin on May 13 and will culminate with the championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The selection show will take place on May 3.

 

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Do-Hyoung Park '16, M.S. '17 is the Minnesota Twins beat reporter at MLB.com, having somehow ensured that his endless hours sunk into The Daily became a shockingly viable career. He was previously the Chief Operating Officer and Business Manager at The Stanford Daily for FY17-18. He also covered Stanford football and baseball for five seasons as a student and served two terms as sports editor and four terms on the copy desk. He was also a color commentator for KZSU 90.1 FM's football broadcast team for the 2015-16 Rose Bowl season.

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