Sacramento State men’s tennis struggled in both singles and doubles, losing to No. 39 ranked Stanford, 7-0, without winning a single set.

The Hornets were not close to scoring a match point in any of their three doubles matches. They struggled with hitting against Stanford player’s shots and volleys.

“It was on cruise control for Stanford,” said Sac State assistant coach Kevin Kurtz. “They pressured us and hit shots we didn’t want to hit.”

A positive step forward for the Hornets was how they competed in the second sets of their singles matches, which is something they have worked on since playing UC Davis.

“We’re playing tougher teams like this and getting used to playing at this level,” Kurtz said.

An issue for the Hornets in their doubles performance was the fact that senior captain Marek Marksoo was not available to play as he sustained an injury in practice. His injury lead to the doubles pairings having to be switched up to compensate.

Stepping in for Marksoo and senior Tom Miller were freshman Christopher Clayton and sophomore Ayman Abdulwahab, who saw their first action of the season. Clayton got to see his first start as a Hornets player after redshirting last season; he lost his match 6-4, 6-1 in No. 6 singles.

Junior Niranjan Ram, the Hornets No. 2 singles player, had the best opportunity to win a set today as he was serving for set point 5-3 in the second set of his match. He lost to David Wilczynski 6-1, 7-5.

Senior Sean Kolar, after scoring the only point for the Hornets against UC Davis on Saturday, was not able to bring the same consistency in the Stanford match and lost 6-1, 6-1. He felt he got some good shots in, but just got outplayed in the match.

“The score doesn’t show how the match went down,” Kolar said. “It was good to learn from it.”

Freshman Kasparas Zemaitelis played in the No. 1 doubles with Kolar today and was the No. 4 singles player for the Hornets. They lost 6-1 in their doubles match, while Zemaitelis lost his singles match 6-0, 6-4.

Sac State’s schedule gets easier moving forward as their next opponent is against the University of Pacific Tigers (0-8) on Feb. 21 at Rio Del Oro Racquet Club.