STANFORD, Calif. – A doubles point victory and hard-fought singles play was not enough to hold off No. 13 USC as No. 29 Stanford fell 5-2 Friday afternoon at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
The match started off with an intense round of doubles that saw the point come down to Stanford's (5-5) Tom Fawcett and Maciek Romanowicz in the No. 1 spot after USC won 6-2 in the No. 3 spot before David Wilczynski and Nolan Paige fired back in the No. 2 spot with a 6-3 win. Knotted up 4-4, Tom Fawcett stepped up to serve phenomenally as Stanford came up with a huge 6-4 win and the point.
The Trojans (7-2) battled back in singles action with Nick Crystal knotting the score at one all with a quick 6-3, 6-1 win over David Wilczynski in the No. 2 spot. The match then started to take a turn as the Trojans won the first set nearly across the board, until the Cardinal fired back to win the second set in four of the remaining matches to send five matches into a deciding third set.
Sameer Kumar was able to pull off a huge tiebreaker win in the second set only to fall 6-1 to Jake DeVine to give the Trojans the 2-1 lead. USC’s Logan Smith was next, topping Nolan Paige 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the No. 3 spot to have the Trojans knocking at the door with a 3-1 lead.
Brandon Sutter fell in his first set 6-1, but came back to notch a 7-5 win to push it to three where Thibault Forget added the clinching point with a 6-3 win. Tom Fawcett in the No. 1 spot also suffered his first loss of the dual season as the 65th-ranked Max de Vroome collected a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 win. The Cardinal closed on a high note though, as Maciek Romanowicz took set one 6-1 before Jack Jaede evened it with a 6-2 win. A tiebreak was in order for the decision which saw Romanowicz emerge with the final win on the night.
The Cardinal returns to action tomorrow as it hosts No. 4 UCLA. Match time is set for 1 p.m. at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
No. 29 USC 5, No. 29 Stanford 2
DOUBLES
1) Fawcett/Romanowicz (STAN) d. Crystal/Laurens Verboven (USC) 6-4
2) Paige/Wilczynski (STAN) d. de Vroome/Jaede (USC) 6-3
3) Rob Bellamy/DeVine (USC) d. Yale Goldberg/Kumar (STAN) 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1
SINGLES
1) No. 65 Max de Vroome (USC) d. No. 4 Tom Fawcett (STAN) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
2.) No. 67 Nick Crystal (USC) d. No. 48 David Wilczynski (STAN) 6-3, 6-1
3) No. 56 Logan Smith (USC) d. No. 102 Nolan Paige (STAN) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
4) No. 92 Jake DeVine (USC) d. No. 88 Sameer Kumar (STAN) 6-3, 6-7 (9-7), 6-1
5) No. 114 Maciek Romanowicz (STAN) d. Jack Jaede (USC) 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8)
6) Thibault Forget (USC) d. Brandon Sutter (STAN) 6-1, 5-7, 6-3*
Order of Finish: 2, 4, 3, 6*,1, 5
