Stanford entered the Atkins Tennis Center Wednesday night as a probable underdog.

The Cardinal, the best program in the history of college tennis, was having what some would call an off year.

The team had suffered some unlikely losses. Freshman standout Matt Bruch and senior sensation KC Corkery had battled injuries. The Cardinal would be playing indoors in March, an oddity for a team based in Palo Alto, Calif. And Stanford – the program that once featured Bob and Mike Bryan, the reigning No.1 professional doubles team – was ranked No. 22.

Last night, none of those negatives mattered though when Stanford handed No. 5 Illinois a 5-2 loss.

The Cardinal stormed out of the visiting locker room and grabbed the doubles point.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Stanford head coach John Whitlinger, whose team came off a 16-day layoff by beating Tulsa on Monday. “You never know what is going to happen (in that situation), but to win the doubles point was critical.”

Once Stanford earned the first point of the match, the team was nearly unstoppable. Using the momentum the team gained from doubles, the Cardinal took five of the six first sets in singles, which Whitlinger said led to his team’s victory.

Three of the singles matches were decided in straight sets. Stanford’s Bruch, an aggressive baseliner from Lake Forest, Ill., survived five match points in his second set against Illini senior Ryler DeHeart to beat the nation’s third-ranked singles player 6-4, 6-4.

“I thought I played all of the match points pretty well, but I got beaten on the first four,” Bruch said. “On the last one, it felt good to watch that ball go out.”

Despite controlling his match against DeHeart from the beginning, Bruch said DeHeart is one of the most talented athletes that he has faced in college. Bruch is currently the 18th-ranked singles player in the country.

“I had a pretty good strategy going in, but he’s definitely an amazing player,” Bruch said. “It was fortunate that I won those two breaks, didn’t lose my serve and got a little lucky.”

Shortly after Bruch won, Corkery defeated sophomore Ryan Rowe 6-4, 6-3. The Cardinal struggled to get their fourth point, though, until Stanford junior James Wan broke Illinois sophomore Ruben Gonzales’ serve to win 6-2, 7-5.

“We had three points, but we needed that one more,” Whitlinger said. “And, sometimes that is the hardest one to get.

“It wasn’t over until James Wan hit that final shot.”

Junior GD Jones posted the Illini’s first win of the night defeating Stanford junior James Pade 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Illinois freshman Marc Spicijaric came back from a 4-1 deficit to tally the team’s only other win. Spicijaric topped Stanford sophomore Phil Kao 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

“We got our butts beat, that was the bottom line,” said Illinois head coach Brad Dancer. “We didn’t perform up to our own standard. They came ready to play and beat us (Wednesday night).”

Illinois, however, was not at full strength in singles. Sophomore Kevin Anderson was forced to sit out, resting a leg injury. The Illini (13-4 overall, 3-0 Big Ten) will attempt to rebound from their loss on Sunday. The team travels to Ohio State to take on the No. 6 Buckeyes.

Following the Stanford match, Jones said the Illini should be able to compete against the best in the country if all of the team members are healthy.

The Cardinal, who snapped the Illini’s 16-match home winning streak, improves to 9-2 overall. They are 4-1 in the Pac-10.

“Stanford played a great match, hats off to them,” Dancer said. “They were hungry and fired up; they did enough to get us, and we didn’t do enough to beat them.”