BYU Netters face No. 9 Stanford

PROVO — The No. 52 BYU men’s tennis team heads to California to take on No. 9 Stanford at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium Friday at 1:30 p.m.

“Stanford is a storied tennis program,” BYU coach Brad Pearce said. “I think we can compete against them. We’re excited to compete there. Our goal every match is to win.”

Coming off back-to-back wins against Idaho State and Montana State, the Cougars (3-4) look to carry momentum to the match against the Cardinal (5-2). perennial powerhouse. Stanford is coming off a 6-1 victory over Hawaii on Tuesday.

Stanford fell to then-No. 9 UCLA, 6-1, last week. BYU dropped its match to UCLA on Jan. 20 by the same score.

At the No. 1 singles position, the Cougars have No. 43 Georgy Batrakov. The senior is 12-6 on the season and 11-6 in doubles with sophomore Patrick Kawka. Kawka ranks No. 106 in the nation in singles and plays at the No. 3 position.

At the No. 2 position for BYU is senior Spencer Smith. He holds the best singles record on the team at 18-4. Smith also plays on Court 2 in doubles alongside freshman Francis Sargeant. The duo is 12-6 overall.

Rounding out the Cougars is No. 67 Keaton Cullimore. The freshman owns a 14-7 record and plays at the No. 4 position for BYU. Cullimore and fellow freshman Dean Ormsby team up at the No. 3 doubles position, where they are undefeated on the season.

Stanford has played its first seven matches without the service of two-time All-American Bradley Klahn due to injury.

The Cardinal has two ranked players in No. 37 Ryan Thacher, who is 13-6 overall, and No. 75 Matt Kandath, who holds a 10-8 overall record.

Thatcher and John Morrissey team up to form the No. 1 doubles duo for Stanford. The duo is 9-3 on the season.

BYU is 2-19 all-time in match play against Stanford.

Whitney Weekes works in BYU Athletic Communications as the tennis sports information director. She can be reached at tennis_sid@byu.edu.