Stanford freshman Jagger Leach does it again against NC State
On Sunday, Stanford men’s tennis freshman Jagger Leach once again won the deciding match to make it a 4-3 victory after doing the exact same thing on Friday against Joaquin Guilleme of No. 3 Wake Forest. This time, Leach defeated Darius Pop 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 to get the win over No. 23 NC State. Stanford is now ranked No. 17 in the nation as a result of both wins. As a result of his stellar performances, Leach picked up ACC Freshman of the Week honors.
READ: Stanford freshman Jagger Leach steals the show to open Arrillaga Tennis Center
While the third set didn’t go to a tiebreaker like it did on Friday, this was still a pretty dramatic win. Leach narrowly took the first set before narrowly dropping the second set. Entering the third set, it became clear that once again, the fate of the entire team would rest on Leach’s racket.
“I’m just, I’m trying to play for my teammates,” Leach said of the key to his clutch victories. “Every time I look over and they’re firing me up, I’m playing for them. Every time I look up into the stands and every single person sitting there is cheering for me, yelling my name, and everybody wants, you know, us to win and Stanford men’s tennis to succeed. And when that falls on my shoulders, I just feel like I owe everything I can possibly give to try and make that happen.
“And so no matter what happens, you know, when I had match points in the first, when I choked a little bit and in the second set tiebreak, just thought I needed to just keep focusing on the next point and doing what I can do and give myself the best chance to succeed for everybody supporting me and everybody around me and all my teammates.”
Given the fact that he went into a third set tiebreaker on Friday, Leach was glad that he was able to avoid it on Sunday. When he finally realized he won the match, he was definitely glad it was over.
“I’m so happy,” Leach said. “I’m so tired. When the ball was finally sailing wide, I was just, I let out one last big ‘come on’, big roar, looked over at my teammates, and then finally like, I feel like it’s all just hit me now. I got back in the locker room. I want to go to sleep. Like, right now.”
One thing I noticed was that Stanford was breaking out the pink jerseys for this match. Leach was able to shed some light on what that was all about.
“Yeah, I mean, so some of the teams here at Stanford, they have an alternate pink uniform,” Leach explained. “Basketball does, baseball might, and so we were thinking like man, it would be really cool if we had one of those and then we figured what better day to debut it then on Easter? We thought that went nicely together. And also opening weekend of our new stadium. So, yeah, we whipped out the pink unis and I think they look cool personally.”
One obvious difference between Friday and Sunday was Friday was a night match while Sunday was a day match. The extra heat made it a bit more challenging in some respects, but at the end of the day, tennis is tennis.
“You know, it’s just a little bit hotter and a little bit more physical and that’s about it,” Leach said. “There’s also like, you know, the sun, sometimes you look up at overheads then you got the sun in your eyes, but that’s about it. It’s not a huge crazy difference, like I’m still just trying to focus on my tennis and I’m thinking about the same things whether it’s day or night.”
Going into that third set, Leach did a great job of keeping a cool head and focusing on one point at a time. He didn’t think too far ahead or let the pressure get to him. That next point mentality is what every great tennis player needs.
“I’m just trying to think about the next point. Nothing more,” Leach said. “And that was it. Trying to focus on where I want to serve, trying to read maybe where I think he’s gonna serve, where I’m gonna split step. What I’m gonna do with the first ball, but that’s it. That’s all I can do.”
For Jagger Leach, it really was an amazing weekend of tennis for him. And to do it on the opening weekend of the Arrillaga Tennis Center makes it all the more special. Stanford is starting to build some momentum ahead of the postseason and Leach is a major reason why. It’ll be interesting to see how the Cardinal do on Saturday at Cal and whether or not they can do well enough in the ACC Championships to secure a Top 16 spot in the NCAA tournament, which would give them the chance to host the first and second rounds.
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