The Stanford men’s tennis team continued its winning ways last Friday, beating No. 70 BYU 7-0 at home. It was the second straight win for the No. 40 Cardinal, and its second straight shutout victory.

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The Cardinal men finally broke through with their first victories of the 2008 season, a pair of 7-0 sweeps over Hawai’i and BYU. Next is a tough challenge against No. 4 Baylor. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/8528
Alex Oppenheimer

The Cardinal men finally broke through with their first victories of the 2008 season, a pair of 7-0 sweeps over Hawai’i and BYU. Next is a tough challenge against No. 4 Baylor.

“It was nice to see the guys come out and get a couple of wins,” said head coach John Whitlinger, also referring to Stanford’s win over the University of Hawai’i earlier last week.

Like in that match, Stanford again got off to a hot start in doubles, winning at all three spots. Sophomore Richard Wire and freshman Greg Hirshman improved their doubles record to 8-3 on the season with an 8-4 win at No. 3 while junior Matt Bruch and freshman Ted Kelly won 8-3 at No. 2 and are 2-1 together in dual matches this year. In a hotly contested match, junior Blake Muller and freshman Alex Clayton downed Cassidy Mears and Jonathan Sanchez at the No. 1 spot, 8-6.

The Cardinal continued its strong play with a dominating singles sweep. Second-ranked Clayton won easily at No. 1 singles over Thomas Shubert, 6-0, 6-3, improving his dual match record to 6-1 and season record to 15-3. At No. 2 singles, Wire defeated Sanchez of BYU 6-1, 6-1. Bruch joined the action with a win at No. 3 singles over Evan Urbina, 6-2, 6-1.

The only close call for the Cardinal was at No. 5 singles. Sophomore Kevin Kaiser was taken to three sets by Daniel Hwang of BYU after Kaiser won the first set 7-6 but lost the second 6-3. Since Stanford had already clinched the win, they played a tiebreaker to decide the match, and Kaiser came out on top, 10-3.

“He played pretty well,” Kaiser said of his opponent. “He wasn’t missing many shots and [was] hitting his backhand well.

“I wasn’t playing very sharp and wasn’t returning well. But I played the third set like it was the first. I basically restarted and acted like it was a brand new match. And I played much better.”

The two straight wins have improved the team’s record to 2-4 on the season, and now Stanford will be right back where it began the season: playing a top-five opponent. The Cardinal will welcome No. 4 Baylor to the Farm tomorrow in the second annual HP Cup. It is an important non-conference match for Stanford, as well as an opportunity to pick up a big victory. The momentum of strong play in its last two matches — no matter who the opponents were — will be crucial for the Cardinal against the Bears.

“It was nice to win these matches, no question,” said Whitlinger. “We played a very solid match [against BYU] — it was pretty impressive. The guys are getting a little confidence. We have a big test coming up on Wednesday.”