Stanford men’s tennis clinches rivalry win over Cal to close regular season

No. 8 Stanford men’s tennis (19-5, 10-3 ACC) secured a 4-2 victory over top-ten rival No. 9 California (18-3, 10-3 ACC) on Saturday at Taube Pavilion. The “Big Slam” win continues a dominant streak of five consecutive victories over the Golden Bears and is the Cardinal’s twelfth win in their past 13 meetings. 

Stanford remains undefeated at home in the ACC regular season, following two shutout victories over No. 15 Duke and No. 47 North Carolina last weekend. 

The Cardinal lost the doubles point on courts to start the match down 0-1, with top doubles pair sophomore Kyle Kang and graduate student Henry von der Schulenberg losing 6-2 and second doubles pair sophomores Nico Godsick and Hudson Rivera losing 6-4.

Von der Schulenberg said that the team trained “really well this week” and “came out firing,” but that Cal played really well in doubles. “I was very impressed,” he said after the match in an interview with The Daily. “We actually didn’t play a bad match.”

No. 12 junior Samir Banerjee returned from a three-week injury to defeat California’s No. 13 Carl Emil Overbeck 6-0, 6-4 at the top singles spot and tie the match 1-1. “I had a couple nerves going into the match, but I think once I got going, it felt right again. It felt normal,” Banerjee said after his win. “The atmosphere was sick.”

Banerjee said that he had lost to Overbeck in their prior two matchups last year. “In the beginning, he gave me some free points [and] I capitalized on it. In the second set, he picked up his level, I started playing a little worse, but I think I held on and played a good match and was able to close it out. That’s all I could ask for.”

On court five, Godsick tied the match 2-2 with a clean 6-2, 6-2 win, but Kang lost his match on court three with a score of 6-2, 6-4. With the match tied 2-2, the Cardinal needed to win two out of the three remaining singles matches.

Freshman Alex Razeghi on court six and von der Schulenberg on court four both came back from competitive 12-game first sets to win their matches 7-5, 6-3 and 7-5, 6-1 respectively, clinching the 4-2 win for the Cardinal. 

“We rebounded really well,” von der Schulenberg said. “Everyone was so focused on what they had to do, and we got the job done. I’m really proud of the guys and we’re just getting started — we’ll peak in May, that’s what they say.”

The match was Senior Day for the Cardinal, celebrating the college careers of seniors Max Basing, as well as graduate students von der Schulenburg and Harsh Hemang Parikh.

“I’m really proud of the seniors… for getting their big win on their Senior Day,” head coach Paul Goldstein said in an interview with The Daily after the match. “These are the type of moments you make memories from, that [the team] is going to remember forever— playing in front of that crowd, their friends, their families.”

The stands were packed on Sunday, with fans watching from every gap in the stadium’s fence. 

The stands were packed on Sunday, with no standing room left in the box and fans watching from every gap in the stadium’s fence. “That was an action packed match, all the way around, the most energetic match I’ve ever played in college,” Razeghi said in an interview with The Daily after the match. 

For Razeghi, the Cal match was one of the most important games of the regular season. “These are the matches you circle on the calendar,” Razeghi said. “These are the big ones, a lot of moments that you’ll never forget, especially this one with the guys..”

The win gave Stanford a 10–3 finish in conference play and a share of third place alongside Cal. It also locked in the No. 3 seed for next week’s ACC Championships in Cary, N.C., where the Cardinal will receive a double bye. Stanford is set to begin tournament play on Thursday, April 18 in the quarterfinals.

“I think we have a good chance of making a run, especially if everyone’s healthy, everyone’s clicking,” von der Schulenberg said. “I think we’re going to be a very dangerous team.”

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