Stanford stuns #11 Aggies in second-round upset

No. 11-seeded Texas A&M’s season ended on Sunday at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal at Mitchell Tennis Center, 4-2.

Looking to advance to their third consecutive Sweet 16, the Aggies were upset in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in a three-hour battle.

“These tournament matches with everything on the line have razor-thin margins,” head coach Steven Denton said. “We weren’t able to close out a couple of first sets where we were ahead, and I think that was ultimately the difference.”

When you don’t capitalize on those thin margins, they can cut you, and ultimately, A&M’s season was cut short by a failure to capitalize in singles action.

The Maroon & White started hot in doubles. Theo Papamalamis and Togan Tokac were dominant on Court 1, winning 6-3, but the other two doubles matches were dogfights.

As Stanford went up 3-1 on Court 3, the crowd momentarily turned its attention to Court 5, as it looked like the doubles point was on track to come down to Lathan Skrobarcek and Markus Molder.

Within an instant, the momentum on Court 3 flipped, as Kholo Montsi and Alex Frusina mounted an unbelievable comeback. Every time they went down in a game, they responded. Every time the Cardinal nearly shut the door, Montsi and Frusina kicked it down again.

As Stanford closed out a 7-5 win on Court 5, even more pressure mounted on Court 3 for Montsi and Frusina to complete their comeback.

They rallied all the way back, winning five of the next seven games to take a 6-5 lead, but they still had one more comeback left in them. Down 15-40, they came back to win four straight points in the final game to win 7-5 and clinch the doubles point for the Aggies.

“We did a great job stealing that doubles point,” Denton said. “That put us in a good spot.”

Unfortunately, A&M was not able to carry that momentum into singles.

The visitors responded emphatically with Samir Banerjee, the 2021 Junior Wimbledon Champion, dominating Kholo Montsi on Court 2 (6-1, 6-1) to pull even.

Both sides traded points as Molder lost on Court 4 and Tokac battled to a win on Court 5 (6-4, 6-4).

Frusina and Stanford’s Nico Godsick went toe to toe all afternoon on Court 3, finding themselves in a first-set tiebreaker. Frusina went up 7-6, but couldn’t close it out, losing 7-9 to drop the first set. Godsick carried that momentum into the second set, winning 6-3 to give the Cardinal another point.

Down 3-2 with their season on the line, A&M’s fate rested in the hands of Papamalamis on Court 1 and Skrobarcek on Court 6.

While Skrobarcek was in a third set, Papamalamis found himself in a hole after losing the first set and going down 5-2 in the second set.

“Theo got back in the second set and gave himself a chance,” Denton said. “He went from 5-2 down to 5-all, and lost his serve again. That was pretty tough on him to have to climb that mountain one more time. I was hoping he could hang in there.”

On the brink of elimination, Papamalamis came all the way back to tie it, 5-5, and had a chance to go up 6-5, but he could not capitalize on his serve. Stanford’s Alex Razeghi made him pay, ultimately winning the second set 7-5 to win on Court 1, clinch the upset and end A&M’s season.

“Give Stanford credit. They hung in there, won the tough sets and were able to close us out,” Denton said. “It comes down to a couple points here and there, and Stanford was just a little bit better than us today.”

The Aggies finish 20-10, failing to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2023.