The Stanford men’s tennis team is back where it belongs. After failing to make it to the NCAA tournament last year and ending a streak of 52 consecutive postseason appearances, the Cardinal had a solid season this year and begins its quest for an 18th national championship today.

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The No. 22 Stanford men’s tennis squad makes its return to the NCAA tournament this weekend, where the team will face UC-Santa Barbara in the first round of play. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/9156
Jeff Keacher

The No. 22 Stanford men’s tennis squad makes its return to the NCAA tournament this weekend, where the team will face UC-Santa Barbara in the first round of play.

No. 22 Stanford (12-8, 5-2 Pac 10) is seeded [17-32] in the tournament. The team will take on [33-48] UC-Santa Barbara in the first round, while Pepperdine and Hawaii will play in the other half of the bracket. The regional is hosted by Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif.

No. 58 UC-Santa Barbara is the automatic qualifier out of the Big West after finishing with a 15-9 overall and 4-1 in conference. The Gauchos are led by Big West Player of the Year Philip Therp, who plays No. 1 in both singles and doubles. Additionally, Jack Hui has a 19-13 singles record this year and Max Taylor leads the team in winning percentage at 16-9. The Gauchos do not have a player ranked in the national rankings in either singles or doubles. Stanford is 11-0 all time against Santa Barbara in its history.

“I don’t know a lot about their team,” said head coach John Whitlinger, who is friends with Gauchos’ coach Marty Davis. But Whitlinger does know one thing.

“He will have [their team] ready to play,” he said.

The winner of the Stanford-UCSB match will play the winner of 11th-seeded Pepperdine and [48-64] Hawaii match. Stanford has already beaten Hawaii twice this season, and the Cardinal leads the overall series with the Waves, 25-6.

Stanford singles players are 2-0 against Pepperdine players this year and 11-1 against Hawaii’s.

Stanford has an outstanding 92-13 record in the NCAA tournament. In 52 appearances, the Cardinal has won the title a record 17 times. Stanford teams in the past have been able to make deep runs into the tournament, something that this year’s team thinks it can do as well.

“We were at Pepperdine in [the 2005 NCAA tournament],” Whitlinger said, referring to Stanford’s second round loss to the Waves that year. “Hopefully we can change that up a little bit this year,” he said.

Stanford will be led into Malibu, Calif. by freshman Alex Clayton, who is ranked seventh in the nation. Junior Matt Bruch and sophomore Richard Wire, Stanford’s other ranked players, will likely join him at the top of the singles lineup.

Last time Stanford was in the NCAA tournament, the team made a run to the quarterfinals only to be ousted by Baylor in an emotionally intense six-hour long match. Bruch, Muller, junior Jeff Zeller and senior Phil Kao were all on that team and hope that this year brings something different.

If the Card can win two this weekend, they will be headed to Tulsa, Okla. for the Round of 16 hosted by Tulsa University. A possible match-up with fourth-seeded Georgia looms if Stanford wants to achieve its highest NCAA finish since 2003.

“We are looking forward to being in the NCAAs again after not qualifying last year,” said Whitlinger. “Everyone is excited to get going on Saturday.”

The Cardinal begins play at 2 p.m. in Malibu on the Pepperdine campus. If Stanford moves on, it will play on Sunday at 1 p.m.