April 13, 1999
STANFORD, CA -- The Stanford men's tennis team improved its record to 16-2 overall as the Cardinal won a close one, 4-3, over No. 17 Pepperdine at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal has now won 41 straight home dual matches, dating back to an April, 1996 loss to UCLA.
Pepperdine came out fighting in doubles. After splitting matches at number one and three doubles, Pepperdine's duo of Sebastien Graeff and Anthony Ross defeated the Cardinal's Ryan Wolters and K.J. Hippensteel, 9-8. In the tie break, Pepperdine won three straight points to win the match and clinch the first point in the dual match.
In singles, it came down to matches involving Wolters and Hippensteel for the Cardinal win. Pepperdine was up 3-1 after winning at number five and six singles. Stanford's Alex Kim won at number four to give the Cardinal its first point of the match. Junior Geoff Abrams captured the Cardinal's next point, defeating Graeff, 7-6, 6-1. On court one, Wolters won the first set 7-5 over Pepperdine's Kelly Gullett. In the second set, Wolters was down 3-5, but rallied back to win four straight games and post a 7-5, 7-5 win to tie up the dual match. The match was decided on court three, where freshman Hippensteel rebounded from losing the first set to Pepperdine's Eni Ghidirmic to win the second set. In the third, Hippensteel was up 3-0 before Ghidirmic won two straight games. Hippensteel took the match with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory.
The Cardinal concludes its home regular season this weekend when Stanford hosts No. 11 USC on Friday at 1:30 pm and No. 1 UCLA on Saturday at noon.
Complete results follow:
Stanford 4, Pepperdine 3
Singles
1. Ryan Wolters (Stanford) d. Kelly Gullett (Pepperdine) 7-5, 7-5 2. Geoff Abrams (Stanford) d. Sebastien Graeff (Pepperdine) 7-6, 6-1 3. K.J. Hippensteel (Stanford) d. Eni Ghidirmic (Pepperdine) 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 4. Alex Kim (Stanford) d. Al Garland (Pepperdine) 6-0, 6-2 5. Chase Exon (Pepperdine) d. Scotty Scott (Stanford) 6-4, 6-4 6. Anthony Ross (Pepperdine) d. Ali Ansari (Stanford) 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
1. Abrams/Kim (Stanford) d. Gullett/John Hui (Pepperdine) 8-3 2. Graeff/Ross (Pepperdine) d. Wolters/Hippensteel (Stanford) 9-8 3. Garland/Ghidirmic (Pepperdine) d. Scott/David Hauser (Stanford) 8-3
Records: Stanford 16-2; Pepperdine 16-7