South San Francisco, Calif. – No. 2 Texas Men's Tennis downed No. 25 Stanford, 5-2, at the Bay Club in South San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday. The match had been moved indoors and offsite from the Stanford campus due to weather, but the Longhorns prevailed for their ninth top-25 win of the season.
Texas won the doubles point with victories at Nos. 2 and 3 and followed with singles wins by junior No. 18 Siem Woldeab at No. 4, junior No. 1 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, senior Nevin Arimilli at No. 6 to clinch, and junior Cleeve Harper at No. 5.
The Longhorns secured doubles with a pair of solid 6-3 wins. The first was by the duo of Woldeab and sophomore Pierre-Yves Bailly over Filip Kolasinski and Samir Banerjee at No. 2, and that was followed by the pair of junior Micah Braswell and senior Chih Chi Huang against Neel Rajesh and Aryan Chaudhary at No. 3. In the remaining unfinished match, the No. 3 pair of Harper and Spizzirri trailed No. 23 Nishesh Basavareddy and Arthur Fery, 4-3, at No. 1 when play stopped.
After the doubles point, Stanford evened the overall match as No. 67 Braswell fell to No. 3 Basavareddy, 6-0, 6-4, at No. 2. However, Woldeab responded and regained the lead for the Longhorns with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Chaudhary.
The Cardinal was able to tie it once more at 2-2 after No. 40 Bailly was defeated by No. 114 Banerjee, 6-3, 7-5 at No. 3, but from there, it was all Texas. Spizzirri recorded his sixth top-15 win this year over No. 13 Fery, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, and Arimilli clinched with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rajesh. Harper then closed the scoring with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Kolasinski.
The Longhorns (12-2) will now return to Austin to face No. 39 NC State on Tuesday, March 14, at 6 p.m. CT at the Texas Tennis Center.
#2 Texas 5, #25 Stanford 2
Singles – Order of Finish (2,4,3,1,6,5)
1. #1 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #13 Arthur Fery (STAN) 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
2. #3 Nishesh Basavareddy (STAN) def. #67 Micah Braswell (UT) 6-0, 6-4
3. #114 Samir Banerjee (STAN) def. #40 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 6-3, 7-5
4. #18 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Aryan Chaudhary (STAN) 6-3, 6-4
5. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Filip Kolasinski (STAN) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
6. Nevin Arimilli (UT) def. Neel Rajesh (STAN) 6-3, 6-4
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,3)
1. #23 Nishesh Basavareddy/Arthur Fery (STAN) vs. #3 Cleeve Harper/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 4-3, unf.
2. Siem Woldeab/Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. Filip Kolasinski/Samir Banerjee (STAN) 6-3
3. Chih Chi Huang/Micah Braswell (UT) def. Neel Rajesh/Aryan Chaudhary (STAN) 6-3