With an impressive showing at the Pac-10 Championships, the Stanford women’s tennis team proved to the league how deep its squad really is. Sophomores Natalie Dillon and Mallory Burdette brought home the women’s invitational doubles title, and freshman Kristie Ahn earned the Pac-10 women’s championship crown in singles.
“Ojai is such a great tournament,” Dillon said. “It’s been going on for over a hundred years. There’s a lot of tradition that is connected with the tournament, so I was very honored to be a part of it.”
A participant in the women’s invitational singles, Dillon made it to the quarterfinals and had a match-point opportunity, but still lost to Susan McRann of Arizona in three sets, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Her true success came in doubles, playing with Burdette. After receiving a first-round bye, they won their next three matches and took home the invitational doubles title. The duo defeated the top three seeds on their way to victory, taking down Courtney Dolehide and Nina Pantic of UCLA, the second-seeded team, in an 8-6 final match for the crown.
“It was such a pleasure to play with Mall,” Dillon said. “She’s obviously a world-class doubles player so I feel like I learned a lot just from playing with her. It was a lot of fun to beat the Trojans, beat the Bruins and beat the Bears. Having a championship under your belt gives you a certain confidence to do better in future competitions.”
In the main draw for doubles, Stanford entered two teams: the freshman duo of Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs, and the senior-sophomore pair of Carolyn McVeigh and Stacey Tan. McVeigh and Tan lost in the second round to fourth-seeded Micaela Hein and Kelcy McKenna of Arizona State, 8-5. Ahn and Gibbs made it one round further, to the semifinals, before losing to the top seed Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova of Cal, 8-5.
With three players in the semifinals of the singles main draw, Stanford had one of its best showings of the past couple years. On one side of the draw was a matchup of Stanford’s top two freshmen of the year: Ahn and Gibbs. On the other side, Tan was taking on the top seed Maria Sanchez of USC.
“That was a really good showing,” Tan said. “I was so proud of how everyone did, not just myself, but everyone else too. I think it shows the rest of the country how strong of a team we are all around.”
Ahn was responsible for the second Stanford title of the weekend. Playing through the bottom half of the bracket, she came in with the seventh seed and received an early break when second-seeded Venise Chan — on the same side of the bracket as Ahn — suffered an upset loss in the first round. This means that Ahn was not forced to face a seeded player until she ran into fellow Cardinal player Gibbs in the semifinal.
Gibbs was also fortunate to avoid eighth-seeded Tayler Davis of Cal on her way to the semifinals, as Davis was upset in the round of 16 by McCall Jones. Perhaps the toughest path through the tournament was Tan’s — she faced the sixth, third and first seeds, defeating sixth-seed Andersson 6-3, 6-4 and third-seed McKenna 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 to reach the semifinals.
“I personally, with my matches, felt like I came into the tournament pretty prepared,” Tan said. “I didn’t feel too much nervousness either. I just wanted to do well in my matches . . . and do my best for the team.”
Sanchez proved to be too tough for Tan on the day, playing up to the top seed and defeating Tan 6-2, 6-1. This meant that Sanchez was waiting in the final for the winner of the all-Cardinal matchup.
Fourth-seeded Gibbs and seventh-seeded Ahn faced off in the match that proved how even they’ve been all season and how much they’ve contributed to the team’s success. In three long sets, Ahn defeated Gibbs 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in a match she described as physically and emotionally tough.
“It’s definitely tough because it’s not only hard that you’re teammates, but it’s also hard since our team is so good,” Ahn said. “She’s an amazingly gifted player . . . I think we brought out the best in each other.”
In the final, Ahn fought through double faults and forehand trouble to earn the upset victory over Sanchez, proving her potential for the next couple years at Stanford. After maintaining a high level of tennis throughout the first set, Sanchez’s level of play fell off and Ahn was able to capitalize in the 7-5, 6-1 championship victory.
“I played some of my best tennis all year in this tournament,” Ahn said. “It was definitely good with each match that I felt much more confident. Winning Pac-10s when you’re a freshman is no easy feat, so I’m really happy that I had the opportunity to do that.”
Ahn and the Cardinal will now gear up for the NCAA Tournament, which begins on May 14.