NCAA TENNIS : Stanford Defeats Tennessee

Stanford continued its dominance of college tennis Tuesday when the second-ranked Cardinal won its third consecutive NCAA men’s team championship by ending Tennessee’s undefeated season.

“I’d like to know what (Stanford coach) Dick Gould does with all his rings,” said Tennessee Coach Mike DePalmer, who team finished the season 34-1.

This is Gould’s 11th NCAA team title in his 24 years at Stanford and his fourth in the last five years. Only the Stanford women have a better winning percentage, having won five consecutive titles and seven in the last nine years.

The Stanford men made it look easy Tuesday, defeating Tennessee, 5-2, at the Hyatt Grand Champions resort, where temperatures reached 103 degrees.

After winning four of the six singles matches, the Cardinal clinched the title in the No. 3 doubles match when Alex O’Brien and Jason Yee beat Brice Karsh and Fabio Silberberg, 6-2, 6-4. Because the title was clinched, the other two doubles matches were suspended.

Stanford (25-3) is a young team, with three freshmen and only one senior among its top six players. But freshman Jonathan Stark, Stanford’s No. 1 player, is the No. 2-ranked player in the country.

And although the Cardinal was seeded second behind Tennessee, few thought of Stanford as an underdog.

Tuesday, Stanford’s No. 3 Karsh, No. 4 Silberberg and No. 5 Coenie de Villiers each won their singles matches in straight sets.

Stark had a tougher time at No. 1 singles before defeating Doug Flach, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5.

In the third set, Flach had control early when he broke Stark’s serve to take a 3-2 lead. He held that advantage for a 5-3 lead. But at 5-4, Flach folded. He was down, 0-40, and eventually lost the game to tie the set, 5-5. Stark held serve, and then broke Flach, at 15-40, to win the match.

“Physically, I just broke down,” Flach said. “But I don’t think he was tired.”

Tennessee played nine matches Monday against UCLA in the semifinals, a marathon that lasted 6 1/2 hours and ended at 8:30 p.m. In contrast, Stanford beat USC, 5-3, and was finished playing at 3:30 p.m.

Still, Tim Jessup was able to keep Tennessee’s chances alive in his No. 2 singles match against Jared Palmer.

“I knew we were down 4-1, and my main concern is that I didn’t want everybody celebrating on my court,” Jessup said. “These guys have bailed me out all week, so I thought it was my turn.”

Jessup ended up winning, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).

The Tennessee player had to hold serve at 6-5 in the third set to force a tiebreaker. Palmer double-faulted to lose the first point, and seemingly his composure.

It only delayed Stanford’s eventual victory.

Tennis Notes

Individual singles play begins today, and doubles play starts Thursday. In singles competition, the top four seeded players are Northwestern’s Todd Martin, Stanford’s Jonathan Stark, San Diego’s Jose-Luis Noriega and USC’s Byron Black. Noriega will play David Hopper of South Carolina in the first round. Black will face Lousiana State University’s Donni Leaycraft, the defending champion. Other Southland players seeded in the No. 9-16 group are UC Irvine’s Trevor Kronemann and Pepperdine’s Alejo Mancisidor and David Wells-Roth.