Stanford Wins Third Title in Row

Propelled by its dominance in doubles, and sustained by its bottom three in singles, Stanford won its third consecutive NCAA men’s tennis title, a 4-0 victory over Georgia, before an announced crowd of 1,200 at Los Angeles Tennis Center on Tuesday night.

It is the 15th overall men’s NCAA title for Stanford, tying the school with USC and UCLA.

Stanford Coach Dick Gould and his top three singles players were not witness to the victory because the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 singles matches were the ones that brought the Cardinal victory, and they were played on courts behind the main grandstand. “I cheated--I told my players not to look at the scoreboard, but I snuck a few looks,” Gould said. “I wasn’t doing too well on my three courts so I had to look.”

And it looked good. The first thing he saw was No. 4 Paul Goldstein’s 6-3, 6-4, victory over Hisham Hemeda to give Stanford a 2-0 lead in team points.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s top three, John Roddick, Eddie Jacques and Steven Baldas, had the Cardinal mired in lengthy third-set battles.

Roddick and Jacques were leading in their third set when play was stopped because Stanford had clinched on the back courts. Georgia (23-5) was the fourth-seeded team and Stanford (26-2) was the third.

Three of Stanford’s top singles players are freshmen, including Geoff Abrams, who won Stanford’s third point, but it was Stanford’s lone senior and captain, Grant Elliott at No. 6 singles, who won match point. Down, 0-3, in the third set, Elliott came back to win, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

“This may be my last match I’ll play competitively, so to finish like this . . . it’s something I’ll never forget,” Elliott said.