PROVO -- In the first of four matches this week, the No. 66 BYU men's tennis team beat No. 61 Stanford in Palo Alto Monday, 5-2.
Monday marked the first win the Cougars have had over the perennial powerhouse in head coach Brad Pearce's memory.
"It's a huge win for our program," Pearce said. "We walked into The Farm and beat a team with 18 NCAA titles, where players like McEnroe and Tanner came from and scores of guys that went on to be the best in the world. To come in and get a win like that is just a great thing for our program. It was a great effort for the whole team."
The Cougars jumped out to an early lead by securing the doubles point with wins on court nos. 2 and 3. Chip Hand and Jonathan Sanchez beat Stanford's Eric McKean and Kevin Kaiser, and Cale Planck and Cassidy Mears beat Stanford's Paul Morrissey and Jeff Zeller, both with scores of 8-4.
Senior Dominik Kaufhold and freshman Cassidy Mears recorded straight-set wins on courts two and five, respectively. Senior Chip Hand also won on court no. 3 and junior Jonathan Sanchez won on court no. 4, both in three sets, with Sanchez's win as the match that clinched the team win for BYU.
Pearce attributed the solid play to addressing significant areas of the Cougars' game that had impeded the team earlier in the season.
"We overcame a couple of big hurdles today," he said. "We started off winning the doubles point. We've been working on it in practice everyday and really focusing on it. We've been so close and today we finally overcame that barrier that started us in the right direction in singles play. The other one is simply closing the deal on a good team that has as big of a tradition that Stanford has. That was a big mental win for us today."
BYU improves to 9-8 on the season and the Cardinal falls to 3-9. The Cougars' next challenge will be against No. 63 Santa Clara on Tuesday before heading to San Diego to start Mountain West Conference play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday against UNLV, New Mexico and No. 73 TCU, respectively.
Match Results
No. 66 BYU at No. 61 Stanford
Doubles:
1. Muller/Wire (SU) def. Kaufhold/Ludlow (BYU) 8-5
2. Hand/Sanchez (BYU) def. McKean/Kaiser (SU) 8-4
3. Mears/ Cale Planck (BYU) def. Morrissey/Zeller (SU) 8-4
BYU wins the doubles point
Singles:
1. No. 110 Richard Wire (SU) def. No. 105 James Ludlow (BYU) 7-6, 1-6, 6-1
2. Dominik Kaufhold (BYU) def. Blake Muller (SU) 6-2, 6-2
3. Chip Hand (BYU) def. Eric McKean (SU) 6-2, 7-6, 6-1
4. Jonathan Sanchez (BYU) def. Kevin Kaiser (SU) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2
5. Cassidy Mears (BYU) def. Paul Morrissey (SU) 6-3, 6-3
6. Jeff Zeller (SU) def. Michael Eraso (BYU) 6-4, 6-2
BYU wins 5-2