STANFORD, Calif. -- Ninth-ranked California dominated 39th-ranked Stanford 7-0 on Saturday in the Big Slam at the Taube Family Tennis Center.
This marked Cal’s first shutout of Stanford since the Bears beat the Cardinal 7-0 on March 10, 2007, in Berkeley. Current Cal associate head coach Tyler Browne – then a senior Golden Bear – capped the victory with a win at court-two singles.
Last year, the Bears won 4-3 at Stanford.
“Our rivalry with Stanford brings out some amazing matches, and today was no exception,” Cal head coach Peter Wright said. “Our energy in doubles was incredible, and even though we were on the road, our fans cheered so loudly it seemed like we were in Berkeley. Stanford was missing a player, but our guys played a flawless match from start to finish.”
Cal captured the doubles point with wins on courts one and three. Senior Ben McLachlan and freshman Andre Goransson beat the Stanford pair of Robert Stineman and Daniel Ho 8-5, on one, while Cal freshman Filip Bergevi and senior Campbell Johnson held off Trey Strobel/Jamin Ball 8-7(5), on three.
In singles, junior Gregory Bayane defeated Robert Stineman, 6-3, 6-3, on court five give and Bergevi beat Strobel 7-5, 6-3 on court three to put Cal ahead 3-0.
Sophomore Mads Engsted clinched the overall match at 4-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Yale Goldberg on court six.
The Cal seniors followed with wins at the top of the order, as the 62nd-ranked McLachlan topped John Morrissey 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 1-0(8) and the 68nd-ranked Johnson beat Ho 6-4, 7-6(5). Goransson, ranked No. 118, ended the contest with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) victory against Stanford’s Anthony Tsodikov on court four.
No. 1 Ohio State 4, No. 10 Notre Dame 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Despite dropping the doubles point and the first singles point, Ohio State (14-0) rallied to take the next four singles matches to defeat Notre Dame 4-2, Saturday afternoon. With the road victory, the Buckeyes improve to 7-0 against Top 25 teams in 2014.
Senior Peter Kobelt, who was named Most Outstanding Player at the 2014 ITA Indoor Team Championships this past week, defeated No. 37 Greg Andrews 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 in a rematch of the ITA/USTA Midwest Regional Singles Championship to clinch the match for the Buckeyes.
No. 4 UCLA 4, Pepperdine 0
LOS ANGELES -- For the second time in just two weeks, UCLA dispatched of local rival Pepperdine on Saturday, posting a 4-0 victory against the Waves at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins (8-1) beat Pepperdine by the same 4-0 score in the first round of the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Houston on Feb. 14.
The Waves (5-5) came out fired up in doubles, givng the Bruins a run for their money at pretty much every court. Although UCLA's Joseph Di Giulio and Clay Thompson managed to take an 8-5 win at the No. 2 spot, Pepperdine answered right back at court No. 1, where Francis Alcantara and Alex Sarkissian posted a huge upset of ninth-ranked Marcos Giron and Mackenzie McDonald. The doubles point eventually came down to court No. 3 and fortunately for UCLA, Gage Brymer and Karue Sell were able to recover from an early deficit to ultimately edge Pedro Leme and Rakshay Thakkar, 8-7(1).
While doubles play was close, singles was anything but, with UCLA cruising to three straight-set victories to take the match. Sell turned in the most dominating performance of the afternoon at court No. 6, where he beat Tom Hill, 6-1, 6-0. It marked a successful return to the singles lineup for Sell, who has been mostly limited to doubles play due to injury.
McDonald, who is ranked 51st nationally, then made it 3-0 in favor of UCLA at court No. 3, as he downed 116th-ranked David Sofaer, 6-2, 6-1.
Giron would get the clinching victory at the No. 1 position, where he downed the 36th-ranked Sarkissian, 6-2, 6-3. Giron is currently ranked fifth in the ITA Singles Rankings.
No. 10 Notre Dame 4, Ball State 0
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Tennis was an all-day affair at the Eck Tennis Pavilion this Saturday. After an exhilaratingly close first match this afternoon to No. 1 Ohio State, Notre Dame was featured on ESPN3 as they took on Ball State this event. The Irish took down the Cardinals without dropping a point 4-0.
The match followed a special format set up especially for the USTA’s College MatchDay. Instead of playing doubles first, the Irish started with singles matches (doubles would have only been played if the singles matches went to a 3-3 tie).
First off the court was junior Wyatt McCoy, who defeated Andrew Stutz at No. 5 6-0, 6-3. Sophomore Alex Lawson was just behind him with another quick victory at No. 6, taking down Patrick Downs after only dropping a single game 6-0, 6-1.
Senior captain Greg Andrews won his watch at No. 1 against Ray Leonard 6-2, 6-2. The match was clinched for No. 10 Notre Dame by freshman Josh Hagar, who beat Austin Smith 6-3, 6-3. Hagar was actually down 3-0 in the second set, but came back to win six games in a row.
