Stockton, Calif. - Jose Chamba and Sem Verbeek controlled their matches, but No. 43 Stanford escaped with a 4-1 win over the No. 68 Pacific men's tennis team Wednesday at Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.
Down 1-0 after doubles, Pacific fell behind 3-0 before Chamba closed out his match with Sameer Kumar, 7-5, 6-2, at third singles. Stanford's David Wilczynski posted a 6-1, 6-3 win over Daniel Alameh at second singles and Miguel Diaz fell 6-4, 6-3, to Michael Genender at fourth singles.
No. 110 Maciek Romanowicz clinched the match for the Cardinal with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Kumara Pardha Adavelly in sixth singles.
Verbeek thoroughly dominated No. 6 Tom Fawcett in the first set, 6-1, but Fawcett managed to avoid a loss by taking an extended set break which earned him a point penalty, and the first singles match went unfinished.
Alex Giannini and Nolan Paige were locked up in fifth singles, 7-6, 3-5, before their match went unfinished.
In doubles action, the No. 62 tandem of Verbeek & Chamba fell to No. 64 Fawcett and Romanowicz, 6-3 at first doubles. Paige & Wilczynski topped Alameh & Giannini, 6-2, at second doubles. Diaz & Lance Ngo were trailing 5-4 to Kumar & Yale Goldberg when the third position match went unfinished.
"Today was a really special day. With the ribbon cutting ceremony for all the donors and alums and with all community support out here before the match it was very, very special," head coach Ryan Redondo said. "Unfortunately, the match didn't go out way today but I thought we were in a position to win the match. In doubles, we came out a little slow in that really got us. Once the singles rolled out, it was really, really even. Jose did a great job to win his match and Sem was up a set and close to finishing the second set against the number six player in the country. Alex was also up a set and had opportunities to close it out. We will need to regroup and be ready as we focus on our WCC schedule, which resumes on Friday."
Stanford improves to 8-6 on the season
Pacific falls to 10-8 on the season, with seven of the Tigers losses coming to teams currently ranked in the Top 75.
The Tigers are back in action on Friday, at Santa Clara in a West Coast Conference matchup which begins at noon. Pacific is 2-0 this season in WCC play.
