Sweet 16 Preview: Stanford

No 1. Wake Forest (29-2, 12-0) vs. No. 16 Stanford Cardinal (18-8, 4-3)

After rolling through UNC-Wilmington and Kentucky in its regional, the Wake Forest Men’s tennis team is heading down to Athens, Georgia to finish out the rest of the NCAA tournament.

This is the third consecutive trip to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for Tony Bresky’s squad, and the 6th appearance in the past 10 years.

The Deacs seemingly have the toughest road to the championship for any top seed, but will play the hand that was dealt.

Tonight at 7pm, it takes on a very pesky Stanford team.

A Look at the Cardinal

Stanford comes into this matchup as the 16 seed. The Cardinal blanked Idaho 4-0 in the first round and got through an always tough Michigan team 4-1 to reach this point.

While the Cardinal are only 18-8 on the season, it has highlight wins over #10 Texas, #8 California, #4 USC and Illinois, all teams who find themselves in the Sweet 16 as well, and a couple others who are among the upper echelon of the college tennis world.

Led by #11 player in the country in junior Tom Fawcett, this team is no slouch and can pose a problem to any team that comes its way.

Singles Matchups

1. No. 5 Petros Chrysochos (Wake) vs. No. 11 Tom Fawcett (Stanford)
2. No. 45 Borna Gojo (Wake) vs. Sameer Kumar (Stanford)
3. No. 13 Skander Mansouri (Wake) vs. David Wilczynski (Stanford)
4. No. 84 Christian Seraphim (Wake) vs. Michael Geneder (Stanford)
5. Dennis Uspensky (Wake) vs. Brandon Sutter (Stanford)
6. Alan Gadjiev (Wake) vs. William Genesen (Stanford)

Stanford is a combined 70-34 on the year in Singles

Doubles Matchups

1. No. 4 Seraphim/Mansouri (Wake) vs. #54 Fawcett/Yale Goldberg (Stanford)
2. Chrysochos/Uspenskey (Wake) vs. Geneder/Kumar (Stanford)
3. Gadjiev/Gojo (Wake) vs. Wilczynski/Sutter (Stanford)

The Stanford Doubles teams are a combined 40-17 on the year.

I don’t see the Deacs having a problem with the Cardinal in doubles, it’s singles where the match will be won or lost.

A key matchup will be at Line 3 between Skander Mansouri and David WIlczynski. While Wilczynski isn’t ranked, he’s beaten multiple ranked foes this season and been on a bit of a heater.

With that being said I’d still take the Deacs 4-1 today to move on and face the winner of UNC and California (which should be nothing less than a brawl).

Last year Wake got absolutely run off the courts by Oklahoma and are looking to not let that happen again. Stanford lost a very tight battle vs UCLA in the NCAA Tournament.

Both teams are coming into this match with a chip on their shoulders and should be interesting to watch.

There appears to be a live stream and stats website, so check it out tonight if you are around!

Live Video and Stats

What do you think Wake’s chances are on this match and moving forward in the tournament?