Despite a couple promising wins in the first round of the Sherwood Cup last weekend, the Stanford men’s tennis team couldn’t maintain its momentum for the remainder of the tournament. After two first round wins, the No. 9 Cardinal were unable to advance any players past the second round in singles or doubles. Stanford traveled to Westlake Village, Calif., to compete in the individual tournament against rivals that included No. 4 UCLA, Southern California, No. 10 Pepperdine and No. 2 Baylor.

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Freshman Richard Wire came from behind to upset the top seed, and defending national champion, in the first round of last weekend’s Sherwood Cup, but lost in the tournament’s second round. Wire and doubles partner Eric McKean were also knocked out in the second round. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6696
Alvin Chow

Freshman Richard Wire came from behind to upset the top seed, and defending national champion, in the first round of last weekend’s Sherwood Cup, but lost in the tournament’s second round. Wire and doubles partner Eric McKean were also knocked out in the second round.

“I don’t feel like the guys felt overmatched in the matches they lost,” head coach John Whitlinger said. “And I feel confident that the next time they go out there, it could be a different result. It was a good tournament to start with. I would have liked to see better results, but those will come.”

The tournament seemed to start on the right foot for Stanford when freshman Richard Wire upset top-seeded Benjamin Kohlloeffel of UCLA.

“I grew in confidence as the match went on and executed my game plan really well against him,” Wire said.

The Bruin is the defending NCAA singles champion and picked up the first set, 6-2. Wire bounced back and claimed the second set in a tiebreaker before winning the third set, 6-3, and the match.

“It was a great win for Rich and hopefully a real confidence booster,” Whitlinger said. “Kohlloeffel is a guy that doesn’t lose too often. He’s so consistent and has been very good all the years he’s been at UCLA.

“Sometimes, when you play a guy like [Kohlloeffel], you tend to think you have to do too much, and you tend to overhit and get too close to the lines,” Whitlinger continued. “But Rich did a great job of keeping the ball in play and waiting for opportunities.”

Senior Eric McKean was the only other Stanford player to win his first round singles match. Up 3-0 in all three sets, McKean ultimately clinched a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Boise State’s Stanley Sarapanich.

“Eric is a guy that just competes so well and if you’re going to beat Eric, you’re going to work really hard,” Whitlinger said. “Eric could have gotten pretty down on himself [after the first set], but that’s not Eric. He’s the kind of guy that’s just never going to give up.

“I’ve been pleased with what Eric did in the fall and he continued that down in Sherwood,” Whitlinger continued. “I expect some good things from him this year.”

McKean was stretched to another three-setter in his second round match but couldn’t pull off the win. The senior dropped the match 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to Southern California’s Kaes Van’t Hof.

Also falling in the second round, Wire dropped a 6-3, 6-1 decision to Pepperdine’s Bassam Beidas.

McKean and Wire teamed up for doubles action on Saturday and picked up a first round 8-2 win over a Trojan team before falling 8-3 to eventual champions Kohlloeffel and Philipp Gruendler.

“I enjoy playing with Eric,” Wire said. “I think we play really well together and I hope we can form a good partnership together. He does certain things well and I do some things well, so we help each other out.”

The team has a short break before it faces Boise State on January 27 in the first home match of the year.

“We had a lot of good matches this weekend,” Whitlinger said. “Some just didn’t go our way. We’re a young team and we’re learning every time we play, and this was a good weekend for that.”