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NewsvineThis weekend, the No. 7 Stanford (16-3, 3-0 Pac-10) men’s tennis team will need to avoid basking in the glow of Tuesday’s thrilling 4-3 upset of No. 3 California and focus on the matter at hand.
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In a pair of Pac-10 home matches at the Taube Family Tennis Center, the Cardinal takes on No. 29 Arizona State (8-9, 3-1) and No. 33 Arizona (8-8, 2-2) this weekend.
“We better be ready to play,” associate head coach John Whitlinger said. “The Cal match is done. It’s over. We’ve got to focus on these two matches because they’re important. We’ve got to keep this going.”
Still, the Cardinal need not move off of its laurels just yet. The Cal match is the kind of victory that will stick in the minds of everyone who witnessed it for a long time to come.
“What a great college tennis match against Cal,” Whitlinger said. “It was a real treat for everyone to watch. It was a great treat for me to watch, that’s for sure.”
With Cal and Stanford deadlocked at 3-3, the only match remaining was between Cardinal sophomore Sam Warburg and Or Dekel on court four. Trailing 4-1 in the third set, Warburg clawed his way back from the brink of defeat to give Stanford the improbable victory by winning the last five games.
“I’m happy for Sam to win a match like that after what happened last year,” Whitlinger said. “It was just a great gutsy effort by Sam. It was déjà vu — the same thing happened last year. This time he pulled it off.”
Last season, in a remarkably similar situation, the Cal-Stanford match at Taube was tied at 3-3 with Warburg playing in the deciding match. He trailed Cal’s Robert Kowalczyk 5-2 in the third set. Warburg fought back to even the match, but eventually lost 7-5 in the tie-breaker.
“Sam had no fear out there,” Whitlinger said. “He stepped up and cracked his forehand and cracked his backhand. He got to the net and served and volleyed. It was a great thing for the other guys to see that Sam kept going for his shots and stayed aggressive in such a pressure-filled situation.”
The Cal victory proved that Stanford is capable of beating the nation’s other elite teams. It was the Cardinal’s first triumph of the season over a top-five team after notching wins against No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 12 Kentucky, No. 15 Washington and No. 20 Tulane.
“That’s a good win for us and something we needed after the UCLA loss,” Whitlinger said. “Cal’s a very good team and they definitely have a chance to win it all. But so do we.”
The win was also important because Stanford is competing with Cal to host a regional for the opening two rounds of the NCAA tournament in May. Since both schools are in the same geographic region, only one can host even if both secure high seedings.
Earlier this season, Stanford beat Arizona State 5-2 and Arizona 6-1 on the road. Since that time, both schools have risen in the rankings and will not present easy victories for the Cardinal.
Last weekend, both Arizona schools defeated Washington 4-3.
“That’s a good wake-up call for us to make us realize that this won’t be a cake-walk,” Whitlinger said. “We can’t fall asleep.”