The No. 28 Stanford men’s tennis team returned to the win column on Tuesday with a 6-1 victory over visiting Saint Mary’s. The Cardinal lost the doubles point but came back to win every singles match for their ninth victory of the season.

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The Cardinal will take on the Huskies in their final home match of the season as Pac-10 play winds down, making each and every match ever more crucial for both Stanford and Washington. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8949
Jeff Keacher.

The Cardinal will take on the Huskies in their final home match of the season as Pac-10 play winds down, making each and every match ever more crucial for both Stanford and Washington.

Fighting some chilly and windy conditions, Stanford (9-8) mixed some things up in the lineup but had no trouble handling the Gaels (13-5).

Sophomores Paul Morrissey and Kevin Kaiser entered the doubles lineup, as well as freshman Ted Kelly. All have played doubles at some point this year but haven’t in recent matches. Kelly and Kaiser teamed up to win at the No. 3 doubles spot, and Kaiser went on to capture the match at No. 6 singles, 6-1, 6-4.

“We got a couple of guys in the lineup that haven’t played much,” said head coach John Whitlinger. “It’s important that [they] get playing time as we head down the stretch.”

Freshman Alex Clayton picked up his 21st singles win of the season with a 6-3, 6-2 win over St. Mary’s Joel Kusnierz — who hadn’t lost a match in over two months — and sophomore Richard Wire won his fifth singles match in a row over Lucas Tirelli, 6-3. 6-2.

The Cardinal has two home matches left, both this weekend. Today, Stanford will take on No. 25 Washington. Tomorrow, the University of Oregon comes to the Farm. In addition to these being the last home matches for the Cardinal this season, they mark the start of a very crucial three-match stretch of conference opponents.

Washington is 13-7 on the year and 1-3 in Pac-10 play. Like Stanford, all their losses have come to teams ranked in the top 25. They have two ranked singles players, No. 82 Patrik Fischer and No. 97 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Senior Andy Kuharszky is also a veteran to the lineup and is a doubles specialist — he was also named Pac-10 Player of the Week earlier this season. The Oregon Ducks are 11-11 on the year but are winless in conference play. They have a talented No. 1 singles player in Marcos Verdasco, but he has been admittedly underachieving this year.

“We know these are big matches, the final Pac-10 matches,” Whitlinger said. “[They] can really make a difference as to where we might be put in the NCAA tournament.”

Whitlinger is referring to the NCAA seeding process, which could award Stanford a more favorable draw if they can capture these last matches and finish both the Pac-10 and overall season with a winning record.

But the NCAA Tournament can wait — Stanford is not going to look past this weekend. Whitlinger pointed out that both Washington and Oregon have played well this season and have picked up big wins throughout.

“We are just trying to get better [as a team],” Whitlinger said. “We made a goal at the start of Spring Break to win all our home matches for the rest of the season.”

That goal is still alive. A home sweep this weekend and the Cardinal will have accomplished its goal.

“We are looking forward to the challenge that Washington and Oregon will bring,” he added.

The match against Washington begins at 1:30 p.m. today at the Taube Family Tennis Center. Tomorrow’s game against Oregon, the Cardinal’s last home match of the season, begins at 1 p.m.