Preparing for postseason play, the Stanford women’s tennis team invited the nation’s best to the Farm as it hosted an exhibition match against the USTA Junior National Team. Stanford (23-0, 8-0 Pac-10) prevailed, 8-4.
“There were eight girls that were chosen by the USTA to be part of a training camp,” said senior Carolyn McVeigh. ”But throughout the year they’ve been playing against some of the top college teams. They’ve played Florida and Miami earlier in the year. They played Cal on Thursday before we played them.”
Included in the USTA national team are players such as Krista Hardebeck and Gabrielle Andrews of California, both ranked atop their junior divisions. TennisRecruiting.net details Hardebeck as being interested in Stanford for college, among other schools including California, UCLA and USC. Hardebeck is a member of the high school class of 2012. Andrews is currently an eighth grader and a member of the high school class of 2015.
Both these players recorded impressive wins over Stanford’s top two players, senior Hilary Barte and sophomore Mallory Burdette. Hardebeck defeated Barte, 6-4, 7-5 in two close sets. Andrews recorded a very impressive three-set win over Burdette, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9).
The other two USTA points came at the 7th and 8th singles spots. High school sophomore Yuki Chiang of California defeated freshman Amelia Herring 6-4, 6-4. High school sophomore Mia King of North Carolina defeated Natalie Dillon 6-1, 6-4 at the eighth spot.
Beyond those four matches, Stanford performed well in earning an impressive win over these national players. Both sophomore Stacey Tan and McVeigh gutted out three-set wins. Tan defeated high school freshman Caroline Doyle, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, and McVeigh overcame high school sophomore Alyssa Smith, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
“She was really good,” McVeigh said of Smith. “I was really impressed by her professionalism . . . she had good volleys and was an all-around player. It was more a matter of who was executing better, and I thought I played really well in the end.”
Stanford rookie Kristie Ahn defeated high school freshman Taylor Townsend of Georgia, 6-3, 6-3, while junior Veronica Li defeated high school sophomore Jennifer Brady of Pennsylvania, 6-4, 6-2.
The college experience really shone through in doubles play. Juniors competing on a national level focus on singles competition with the hopes that this will help them once they turn professional, and only on the college level do players really focus on developing and improving their doubles ability. McVeigh and Tan defeated Brady and Hardebeck 8-6, overcoming some of the top individual players.
“Hardebeck was their number-one singles player, but I think Stacey and I were confident in our abilities to take them down,” McVeigh said. “This is just because the years we’ve been playing doubles at college. In juniors, the focus tends to be singles, so we had the edge technically and experience wise. We did more formations, had more movement at the net, but I was really impressed by their play.”
Stanford won all four doubles matches, highlighted by an 8-2 victory at the third spot that starred Herring and Li in a defeat over King and Smith.
“I’d say the USTA juniors team was one of the top two or three teams we’ve played this year,” McVeigh said. “It was really good to see that team in place and showing that it’s possible to develop your game through college tennis instead of considering college tennis as the fallback if you can’t make it in the professional circuit.”
Stanford will now prepare for the Pac-10 Championships, which begin on Thursday in Ojai, Calif.