A weekend of big expectations proved difficult for the Stanford women’s tennis team after losing handily to No. 4 UCLA (10-1) and getting rained out in its match against No. 10 USC (7-3).
No. 11 Stanford (7-1) had marked this weekend on its calendars a long time ago as an opportunity to really see how the women matched up with the rest of the Pac-10. After missing the ITA National Indoors, the players were not sure how good they were compared to their other California rivals.
On a seven-game win streak going into Friday, Stanford suffered its first setback of the season when they were overpowered by the Bruins 6-1. While the loss did not count toward Pac-10 rankings, it mattered for momentum going forward in the rest of the season. Coming out of this weekend, the Cardinal will need to see how well it reacts to adversity.
“We just weren’t all there,” said freshman Stacey Tan. “We might have over-thought the fact that UCLA is ranked higher than us at the moment.”
The day started with doubles and featured a surprising upset at the No. 1 spot. Both teams split results through the No. 2 and No. 3 spot, with Tan and fellow freshman Mallory Burdette getting an exciting 8-5 win in their first Pac-10 showing.
“[Mallory and I] played really well in doubles,” Tan said on her team’s win. “They were a good team, but I don’t know, we were pretty pumped. I was more vocal than I usually am, with the ‘Come on!’ to everyone else.”
UCLA clinched the doubles point when Yasmin Schnack and Andrea Remynse, the No. 11 doubles team in the country, upset the second-best doubles team in the country–Stanford’s junior Hilary Barte and senior Lindsay Burdette–by a score of 8-5.
Despite strong opposition at the top few spots by Stanford, the Bruins were able to win a majority in singles as well. Mallory Burdette took her opponent to a tiebreaker in the first set before losing 7-6 (8), 6-4. Older sister Lindsay went to a third-set tiebreak before falling 6-7(7), 6-2, (10-6) in another upset.
Tan’s big Pac-10 debut was marred with anxiety after the team lost the doubles point.
“I was looking at the scoreboards a lot,” Tan said. “Oh, we’re down the doubles point, what if we lose this match? If I had just believed and been more confident in my game, gone out and played without thinking about all the outside factors, I would have been better.”
Only Barte proved able to withstand the UCLA momentum by manufacturing her own upset, defeating No. 5 Schnack 7-5, 2-6, (10-7) to prevent Stanford from being shut out. Hilary’s win was large for her on an individual level as well. She improved her record to 16-3 and more importantly 8-0 in duals. She has won 11 consecutive matches and is nine wins away from surpassing her career-best winning streak of 19 wins, established during her freshman year.
The Stanford women went into Saturday looking forward to another tough match against an opponent ranked only one spot above them. With both teams relatively comparable in skill, it promised to be an exciting day. Unfortunately, rain in the L.A. area forced the teams to call it off. They won’t reschedule the match, but will instead wait to face off in their previously scheduled rematch on April 2 in Palo Alto.
Looking ahead from this weekend, the Cardinal needs to make sure its loss does not drag the team down. While the initial disappointment might not have entirely dissipated yet, the players seem to be reacting in a positive fashion.
“Of course, after we finished the match, it was disappointing,” Tan said. “But we’re going to practice […] just working harder, being more focused, knowing what we’re working towards. It just opened our eyes to the fact that we should work on a couple things. Things like not being nervous, working well as a team, working hard in practice and taking that into the matches. Even if it wasn’t all that long, it was really useful.”
Stanford hosts Saint Mary’s this Thursday at 1:30 p.m.