STANFORD, Calif.- USF gave 25-ranked Stanford all it could handle Tuesday afternoon before dropping a 4-2 decision to the Cardinal at the Taube Family Tennis Center.
The loss drops USF's overall record to 11-8 heading into the final weekend of the regular season, which will be highlighted by home matches against Gonzaga and Portland.
"This was a very close and competitive match," said head coach
Pablo Pires de Almeida. "We know that we were right there but the Cardinal did a better job hanging tough then we did and they did a great job today against us in the doubles."
USF got off to a tough start losing the doubles point against the Cardinal. Although No.1 and No. 3 doubles were completed, at No. 2 doubles, Brockstedt and Tallman held serve and battled an even 3-3 match against Maciek Romanowicz and Trey Strobel.
In singles, the Dons gained momentum with
Bernardo Saraiva and
Vasco Valverde's competitive court play.
Bernardo Saraiva won a clutch deuce point to first set against No. 60 John Morrisey 6-3, and dominated the second set with a 6-1 victory against the ITA nationally ranked opponent. With this win, Saraiva has a 15-2 dual match record with 13 of his wins claimed in just two sets.
Valverde did not let up in his match against Maciek Romanowicz to earn a 6-1, 6-3 win for USF. His victory brought the Dons back 2-2 against Stanford. Valverde is now 12-6 for in the spring season and 9-5 at the No. 5 singles position.
Although Stanford picked up victories at No. 2, 3, 4 and 6 singles to take the match, USF made them work for their win.
Nils Skajaa was at 4-4 in his second set against David Wilczynski and just missed the mark to fall 6-4, 6-4. Tallman also battled it out in back and forth play against Robert Stineman to come short, 6-4, 6-4.
Thomas Takemoto's match was suspended against Nolan Paige where he went 6-5 in the second set.
Pires de Almeida added,"We can gain a lot of confidence from this match headed into this weekend. Bernardo and Vasco really stepped up today. We look forward to finishing our season strong this Friday and Saturday against two tough conference teams."
The Dons will return home for the weekend as they finish up their regular season against Gonzaga at 12:30 p.m. at the Olympic Club on Friday and Portland on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Cal Club.
No. 55 San Francisco 2, No. 24 Stanford 4 Singles | Order of Finish: 6,1,5,2,3 No. 1
Bernardo Saraiva (USF) def. No. 60 John Morrissey (STAN) 6-3, 6-1
No. 2 David Wilczynski (STAN) def.
Nils Skajaa (USF) 6-4, 6-4
No. 3 Robert Stineman (STAN) def.
James Tallman (USF) 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 Nolan Paige (STAN) vs.
Thomas Takemoto (USF) DNF
No. 5
Vasco Valverde (USF) def. Maciek Romanowicz (STAN) 6-1, 6-3
No. 6 David Hsu (STAN) def.
Alex Santiago (USF) 6-0, 6-1
Doubles | Order of Finish: 3,1 No. 1 No. 22 Morrissey/Stineman (STAN) def. No. 83 Saraiva/Skajaa (USF) 6-0
No. 2 Romanowicz/Str Trey Strobel (STAN) vs. Brockstedt/Tallman (USF) 3-3 DNF
No. 3 Yale Goldberg/Wilczynski (STAN) def. Takemoto/Valverde (USF) 6-1
