LOS ANGELES - No. 19 Stanford went down in a nail-biter against No. 28 UCLA, dropping the road contest to the Bruins, 4-3, on Friday afternoon. The loss gave the Cardinal its first conference defeat of the season, moving Stanford to 13-5 on the season and 5-1 in Pac-12 play.
Stanford dropped the doubles point to open up play in Los Angeles as UCLA secured victories on courts two and three to jump out to an early lead. The tandem of Max Basing and Nico Godsick were the lone victors in doubles play for the Cardinal, rolling to a 6-3 victory in the first position.
Nishesh Basavareddy opened the scoring in singles play with a decisive victory in straight sets, defeating the nation's 26th-ranked player, 6-2, 6-2, in the top position. Neel Rajesh and Max Basing would add wins on courts three and five with 7-5, 6-3 victories, respectively, to push the Cardinal lead to 3-1.
The Bruins, however, would mount a comeback by winning each of the remaining singles matches, earning a trio of third-set victories down the stretch to clinch the match win.
Stanford returns to action on Saturday afternoon for the second stint of its Los Angeles road trip, squaring off against No. 54 USC at 2 p.m. PT.
#28 UCLA 4, #19 Stanford 3
DOUBLES
1) No. 43 Basing/Godsick (STAN) d. Li/Revelli (UCLA), 6-2
2) van Loben Sels/Johnson (UCLA) d. Banerjee/Basavareddy (STAN), 7-6 (2)
3) Hoogmartens/Nanda (UCLA) d. Chaudhary/Parikh (STAN), 6-3
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
SINGLES
1) #23 Nishesh Basavareddy (STAN) d. #26 Govind Nanda (UCLA), 6-2, 6-2
2) Spencer Johnson (UCLA) d. No. 47 Samir Banerjee (STAN), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3)
3) Max Basing (STAN) d. Giacomo Revelli (UCLA), 7-5, 6-3
4) Alexander Hoogmartens (UCLA) d. Kyle Kang (STAN), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
5) Neel Rajesh (STAN) d. Neel Rajesh (UCLA), 7-5, 6-3
6) Jorge Plans Gonzalez (UCLA) d. Hudson Rivera (STAN), 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 3, 4, 2, 6