On Saturday, No. 8 Stanford men’s tennis defeated No. 9 Cal by a final score of 4-2 in a home match to close out the regular season. Cal took the doubles point as Theo Dean/Carl Emil Overbeck defeated Kyle Kang/Henry von der Schulenburg 6-2 while Alex Chang/Derrick Chen defeated Hudson Rivera/Nico Godsick 6-4. Stanford responded in the singles as Samir Banerjee defeated Carl Emil Overbeck 6-0, 6-4; Henry von der Schulenburg defeated Timofey Stepanov 7-5, 6-1; Nico Godsick defeated Derrick Chen 6-2, 6-2; and then Alex Razeghi defeated Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski 7-5, 6-3. The lone singles match Cal won was Theo Dean cruising past Kyle Kang 6-2, 6-4. Stanford improves to 19-5 overall and 10-3 in the ACC while Cal falls to 18-3 overall and 10-3 in the ACC.
“Cal came out and punched us in the mouth in doubles,” Stanford head coach Paul Goldstein said after the match. “I didn’t think we played poorly, but I thought they played more proactive and honestly, they earned the doubles point. And told the guys in between, I was okay with where we were at because I thought that was a high quality doubles point and we showed a lot of good things. We put ourselves in position to win some points there in dubs, and just didn’t execute. Different story, but it was high quality.
“And then gosh, proud and happy for my seniors who all battled today. I mean, we haven’t had Samir in three weeks. Guy comes back and beats the number 11 guy in the country 0 and 4? How good is that? Like, it’s good to have him back. It’s really good to have him back…Nico, clean as a whistle. He just, I mean, I’ve been saying it now for like four straight weeks. He just keeps getting a little bit better every match. He’s damn good. He’s just really good. To get him and Samir off the court, changed that scoreboard pressure a little bit from 1-0 down to 2-1 up. And then, I mean, it comes down to a couple first sets between, really close first sets for Raz and Henry and that’s just momentum."
There was a great crowd in attendance as fans from both Stanford and Cal were on hand to cheer on their respective schools. Even though the Stanford/Cal tennis match doesn’t get the same attention as other sports, there was still a lot of emotion felt on both sides, making for a fun day of tennis.
“[The] crowd pulled us through and the crowd was great," Goldstein sad. "Oh my gosh, we’ve never had so many people here an hour before the match as we did today. It was great. And I just hope they’re coming back beginning of May because we’re hosting, we’ll be here. We’ll be here for the first couple rounds NCAAs at least. So, I’m just, yeah man, happy for these guys. Crowd was amazing. I need more of that. That was so great. Really grateful to the crowd.”
Something that really helped Stanford settle in was Samir Banerjee and Nico Godsick winning their matches quickly to give them a 2-1 lead. By bouncing back quickly from losing the doubles point, Alex Razeghi and Henry von der Schulenburg were able to play with less pressure on their rackets. During the break between the doubles and singles, the words from Goldstein to his team were those of encouragement. He made it clear that even though the doubles point didn’t go their way, they were still playing high level tennis and had a great chance to win.
“Yeah, that was probably the craziest match, craziest kind of setting we’ve had,” Razeghi said of his victory. “You know, Cal is obviously our biggest rival, so it was really energetic to start. You know, I played a really good player. You know, he got up a break, a couple times early in the first and then I fought back. He was serving for the first set up 5-4, fought back, won that set, and second set I took the momentum. He took his way back towards the end of that second set, but I closed that out at the end, thankfully.”
Like he has all season long, Alex Razeghi brought his A-game. He was actually ahead in his doubles match when Cal took the doubles point, so he did his part for sure. He takes great pride in his movement and ability to be just as effective in the doubles as he is in the singles.
“Just a rock. He’s just a rock,” Goldstein said of Razeghi. “I’m telling you. Federer once said to me, the ten best players in the world are the ten best movers in the world and Alex is one of the best movers in the country. So he gives himself a chance every single match because of how good of a mover he is and how good of a competitor he is. A few things he needs to work on, particularly when he gets up to finish, but he did it today. He did it today. He never gave up. Down 5-3 in the first, but, I mean, we’re not here without him. He has 12 wins, him and Henry I believe lead the team in wins. Just awesome. Those guys have been awesome. Samir coming back like that, it’s just really really positive.”
“The doubles side of it, I take pride in my doubles,” Razeghi said. “I feel like I’m one of the better doubles players in college, so I try to take pride in that and yeah, that’s what it is I think…I think my movement. I take a good amount of pride in that and just making first serves. And I feel like energy is really big in doubles and I try to emphasize that with everyone that I play with. So I feel like it’s really important. It’s only a six game set in doubles, so you got to start off, you know, really energetic.”
Up next for Stanford is the ACC Championships in Cary, North Carolina next week. If they perform well there, they should get a top eight seed in the NCAA tournament, giving them the opportunity to host the first couple of rounds.
“Our goal all along was try to be top eight end of regular season,” Goldstein said looking ahead to the postseason. “We’re not there yet. We’ve got ACC tournament coming up. And I think we’ve earned ourselves a chance not to play until Friday if I’m not mistaken. Yeah, so Friday. We get a day off, an extra day off, I think to get ready for that. But we probably gotta put at least one win on the board to clinch top eight and so that’ll be the focus.
“And as I think about postseason, I think about what Coach Gould used to always say is trying to play your best tennis come May. Think about the best ability as availability at this end of the year and so keeping guys healthy over the course of the next several weeks is critical. And just this is a group that we’re starting to really embrace the moment, the pressure moments and thrive in those moments and that’s what I really like to see.”
“We’re just trying to ride the wave right now,” Razeghi added. “There’s a lot of very good teams in the ACC and I think we can compete with any one of them. So just trying to stay in our lane and you know, just focus on what we can control. That’s kind of been his motto.”
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