[StanfordMatt]

I'm no match for ColoradoTree when it comes to providing as detailed of an analysis of our men's chances, but suffice it to say that it would be foolish to count them out as a contender for the title. For starters, we already have beaten UCLA this year so the idea that they are on a different level from us is hogwash. Regarding Wake Forest, we played them in the semifinals of the Indoor National Championships where we lost 4-3 back in February. In the deciding match, our top player, Tom Fawcett, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the third set tiebreaker but shanked an overhead on the next point and ended up losing 7-5 in the tiebreak. It was a match that we literally lost by one swing of the racquet. There's no reason we're not capable of beating the Deacs should we meet again.

The biggest problem our men are facing is that, unlike our women, they haven't been playing their best tennis down the stretch. In the PAC-12 semis two weeks ago, they were beaten soundly by a USC team that Stanford had dominated twice earlier in the year. Our top three players (Fawcett, Geller and Kumar) all dropped matches to lesser ranked opponents in Ojai and generally looked off their game. As ColoradoTree points out, our women can sometimes get by without wins on the top courts because of the strength of their 4-6 players. That's not the case for our men. Those top three will have to get back on track if they're going to entertain any hopes of winning the championship. Hopefully, they can do just that with wins in the first two rounds versus New Mexico State and Duke/Ole Miss.

[StanfordMatt]

I'm no match for ColoradoTree when it comes to providing as detailed of an analysis of our men's chances, but suffice it to say that it would be foolish to count them out as a contender for the title. For starters, we already have beaten UCLA this year so the idea that they are on a different level from us is hogwash. Regarding Wake Forest, we played them in the semifinals of the Indoor National Championships where we lost 4-3 back in February. In the deciding match, our top player, Tom Fawcett, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the third set tiebreaker but shanked an overhead on the next point and ended up losing 7-5 in the tiebreak. It was a match that we literally lost by one swing of the racquet. There's no reason we're not capable of beating the Deacs should we meet again.

The biggest problem our men are facing is that, unlike our women, they haven't been playing their best tennis down the stretch. In the PAC-12 semis two weeks ago, they were beaten soundly by a USC team that Stanford had dominated twice earlier in the year. Our top three players (Fawcett, Geller and Kumar) all dropped matches to lesser ranked opponents in Ojai and generally looked off their game. As ColoradoTree points out, our women can sometimes get by without wins on the top courts because of the strength of their 4-6 players. That's not the case for our men. Those top three will have to get back on track if they're going to entertain any hopes of winning the championship. Hopefully, they can do just that with wins in the first two rounds versus New Mexico State and Duke/Ole Miss.