April 12, 2000
STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford University men's tennis team (18-0) celebrated its first day back atop the WingspanBank.com Collegiate Team Rankings with a 7-0 non-conference home win over Utah (8-12) on Wednesday afternoon at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
The Cardinal, which was also ranked No. 1 from Mar. 1-15, is the only undefeated Division I men's tennis team in the nation. Stanford, who was No. 4 last week, jumped back into the top spot after home wins over then-No. 1 UCLA (4-3) and then-No. 18 USC (5-2) last weekend on The Farm. Individually, Stanford had four players in the ITA Singles Rankings released today - #3 Alex Kim (Potomac, MD/Winston Churchill HS), #12 Geoff Abrams (Newport Beach, CA/Newport Harbor HS), #13 K.J. Hippensteel (Roanoke, VA/International Academy) and #94 Scotty Scott (Belvedere, CA/Pinewood HS). On the doubles side, Abrams and Kim retained the nation's top rankings for the fifth straight month, while Hippensteel and freshman David Martin (Key Biscayne, FL/Boca Raton Prep) re-entered the top 50 at #21.
In Wednesday's win over the Utes, the Cardinal won eight of the nine matches to close out its 22-day homestand 9-0. Stanford won all six singles matches in straight sets, highlighted by Hippensteel's 6-0, 6-4 win over David Mercier (St. Augustin, Quebec, Canada) at No. 1 singles. Hippensteel, who was ranked No. 1 in the country before missing nearly three months with a ruptured spleen, picked up his first singles victory since Nov. 26. The sophomore, who had dropped out of the national rankings because of inactivity, re-entered at No. 13 on Wednesday.
Also for the Cardinal, Martin notched his sixth straight victory by beating Trevor Ferguson (Sandy, Utah) 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4 and freshman Carter Morris (Washington, D.C./St. Alban's HS) improved to 6-0 in duals with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Nikolas Yip (Nanoose Bay, B.C., Canada) at No. 6. In four of Stanford's singles wins, Utah was held to five games or less.
Utah secured its only win at No. 1 doubles, as Ferguson and Mercier teamed up to upset 21st-ranked Hippensteel and Martin 8-5. Stanford's regular No. 1 duo of Abrams and Kim, who are the top-ranked doubles team in the country and are each ranked in the top 15 in singles, were both given the day off.
Stanford will try to wrap up its third consecutive Pacific-10 Conference title this weekend when it visits #45 Arizona State and #71 Arizona. The 5-0 Cardinal, who leads UCLA by one game entering the weekend, can wrap up the title if it wins at Arizona State (6-10, 2-3) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and at Arizona (8-7, 0-5) on Saturday at noon.
#1 Stanford 7, #75 Utah 0
Singles
No. 1 - #13 K.J. Hippensteel (S) d. David Mercier, 6-0, 6-4
No. 2 - #94 Scotty Scott (S) d. Ashley Dyer, 6-4, 6-4
No. 3 - David Martin (S) d. Trevor Ferguson, 6-1, 6-1
No. 4 - Ali Ansari (S) d. Daniel Carlsson, 6-4, 6-3
No. 5 - Scott Lipsky (S) d. Kevin Zenger, 6-1, 6-2
No. 6 - Carter Morris (S) d. Nikolas Yip, 6-1, 6-2
Doubles
No. 1 - Trevor Ferguson/David Mercier (U) d. #21 K.J. Hippensteel/David Martin, 8-5
No. 2 - Ali Ansari/Scotty Scott (S) d. Nikolas Yip/Kevin Zenger, 8-5
No. 3 - Scott Lipsky/Carter Morris (S) d. Ashley Dyer/David Laverty, 8-4
(Stanford wins doubles point)
Records - #75 Utah 8-12, #1 Stanford 18-0.