A beautiful day at Stanford ended with another beautiful result for the No. 8 Stanford women’s tennis team (6-0) as it ran away from No. 35 Boise State (3-3) with a solid 7-0 showing.
It was all smiles during the doubles competition. Stanford’s No. 3 team of Veronica Li and Jennifer Yen sprinted to an 8-0 finish to bring in the Cardinal’s first point of the day. The freshmen tandem of Mallory Burdette and Stacey Tan were close behind with an 8-3 victory, and all gathered to watch the No. 1 match. The Broncos’ Lauren Megale and Pichittra Thongdach were able to keep each game close, but the experience of the No. 2 duo of Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette was enough to bring the Cardinal pair to an 8-3 victory.
Yen, a junior, was out on the court for her first dual match of the season. She recorded two of the more convincing victories on the day and took full advantage of her playing time.
“I just played solid,” Yen said. “A little rusty, but you kind of expect that when you haven’t played a dual match.”
She attributes her doubles win to her partnership with Li, whom she has played with frequently in past years.
“It wasn’t the prettiest of matches, but we got the work done,” Yen said. “It’s fun to play with her. We mesh pretty well because she has a good, hard-hitting groundstroke game, which just makes my life so much easier at the net.”
Singles proved to be trouble-free as well. Mallory Burdette whipped through her opponent 6-0, 6-1 to record the first singles victory. Older sister Lindsay Burdette clinched the victory by defeating Lauren Megale an even 6-3, 6-3. Only Veronica Li was pushed in the end before finishing off Marlena Pietzuch 6-2, 7-5, but even hers was a straight sets win.
Mallory was very happy that things came together today for her win despite the hard work of her studies.
“Things have been difficult with classes and work that I have going on,” she said. “But I feel like out there, on the court, everything is just clicking. I’m feeling much more comfortable in these dual matches.”
The one blemish on an otherwise perfect day was the absence of junior Carolyn McVeigh. Sidelined by a diagnosis of severe tonsillitis, she was unable to suit up for the match, but will return for next week’s match against Hawaii and will practice this weekend. McVeigh is ranked No. 78 nationally and has been a staple at the No. 5 spot for Stanford. She is 5-0 in singles dual play, 10-4 overall and has a 5-0 record with Li in doubles.
“[I] should be feeling well enough to start playing over [the] weekend,” McVeigh said. “[I] didn’t get [my tonsils] removed, so recovery shouldn’t be too bad. Feeling a lot better actually and looking forward to being back out there on Wednesday!”
Boise State dropped to 3-3 on the year and has failed to record a win over a top 50 team. Their one ranked win came against No. 60 Colorado, 5-2. Meanwhile, the Cardinal looks forward in its preparation to its upcoming trip to Los Angeles to take on No. 4 UCLA and Southern California.
“I have my little calendar that I write things down on and definitely [the L.A. matches] have stars beside them,” Mallory Burdette said. “They’re pretty much our rivals and they’re usually pretty good teams, so it’s a test to see where we are.”
Similar to the Texas Longhorns team the Cardinal has already faced, both L.A. schools always bring out a good crowd. Yen is preparing for a return to that kind of atmosphere.
“The L.A. schools bring a crowd,” she said. “Last year, we beat [UCLA] pretty soundly, 6-1 I think. It’s always fun to shut up a home crowd and let your tennis do the talking.”
The Cardinal welcomes Hawaii next Wednesday in a match moved from January due to rain.