On its first day of individual tournament play, the Stanford women’s tennis team advanced three of its five players–senior Hilary Barte, freshman Nicole Gibbs and sophomore Stacey Tan–into the second round. It was an injury-filled day, with two of Stanford’s players hampered by injuries and one Cardinal player benefiting from an opponent’s ailment.
Before play had even begun, the Cardinal had already lost one of its best players. Freshman and 2011 Pac-10 singles champion Kristie Ahn was forced to pull out with a recurring ankle problem. She also was on the sideline for Stanford’s championship matchup against Florida on Tuesday evening.
“Obviously it’s frustrating because I really looked forward to playing both team and individuals,” Ahn said. “There’s nothing I can really do though so now I’m just focusing on recovering and playing tournaments for the summer. It was a little sad watching some of my teammates play today and watching again from the sidelines.”
Despite Ahn missing out, Stanford still had plenty of talent on display in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Barte, Gibbs, Tan and sophomore Mallory all participated in singles play.
For Tan, the second round came easy. Up 2-0 in the first set, her opponent defaulted due to injury.
Gibbs proved dominant again, running off to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Anastasia Putilina of Utah. Putilina was 14-8 at Utah’s No. 1 spot, with a seven-game win streak and a 6-1 conference score.
Barte played on court one again, this time as the third seed in the tournament. She came up against Natalie Pluskota of Tennessee, who was 15-10 in the regular season for the Vols, including 7-3 in SEC play.
Continuing her impressive run of late, Barte blew by Pluskota for a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Her movement into the net was what separated her from her opponent, as a powerful forehand and net-charges to get the finishing volley catapulted Barte into the next round.
“They were very composed, especially after a tough loss, to come back the next day,” Ahn said. “People say the hardest day is the day after a loss. I think they played very composed and they did work. They got off the court as fast as they could.”
Burdette struggled on the day with a stomach problem as well as last-minute changes in the draw. Her initial opponent was meant to be Nazari Urbina of Texas A&M, but Urbina failed to earn a seed for the tournament coming out of a weaker Big-12 Conference. Instead, Burdette was put up against the University of North Carolina’s number one, Zoe De Bruycker. De Bruycker earned a 9-16 seed and came from a team ranked fourth in the nation playing in a very competitive ACC league. De Bruycker is 29-16 this year, including 7-4 in ACC play. Even so, Burdette insists it didn’t affect her game.
“I’m kind of a don’t-look-at-the-draw girl,” Burdette said. “I only knew who my opponent was that morning. When we talk about other players, we pretty much just say play your own game.”
With her new opponent, Burdette went on to drop her first-round match despite dominating the first set 6-1. Ultimately, Burdette would lose her second set tiebreaker and go on to lose the third set, ending her singles play for the season.
“I’m definitely struggling with a stomach pull and I was not serving at 100 percent,” Burdette said. “I think at the beginning of the match it didn’t really affect me, because she was struggling with my weird soft serves. As the match went on, she started to adjust and so my service games became much more difficult.
“I just hope that I’m able to serve 80 or 90 percent tomorrow,” Burdette continued. “Hilary and I are playing great doubles. I really want this stomach thing to get better so we can get out there and compete.”
Singles play continues at tomorrow Taube Tennis Center, followed by the first round of doubles.