The Stanford women’s tennis team had representatives in every round of the NCAA Tournament this year, and thanks to some clutch play in a tiebreaker, the pairing of senior Hilary Barte and sophomore Mallory Burdette put the heartbreaking loss in the team competition in the past them and won the doubles championship on their home court. Sophomore Stacey Tan almost shocked the field by taking the singles crown, but lost in the final just before Barte and Burdette began their match.

As the 3rd seed in the tournament, Barte and Burdette knocked off Clemson’s Josipa Bek and Keri Wong 7-6 (6), 6-0 in what was Barte’s second run to a doubles championship. In the first-set tiebreaker, Stanford saved five set points and overcame a 1-6 hole to win. That comeback, along with Barte’s brilliant net play, allowed them to cruise to the 6-0 second set and secure the championship.

“Defending a title is always really hard, as proven in the team event,” Barte said. “I’m proud of the way Mallory and I went about our business and you know, battled through the tournament. It’s been a long two weeks.”

During the tournament, the pair recorded victories over two top-10 opponents. In their semifinal matchup, they upset the tournament’s top doubles pair of Jana Juricova and Mari Andersson of California in a dominating 6-1, 6-4 performance.

“Especially these last two matches, Hilary and I returned really, really well,” Burdette said. “That’s something that definitely left us at times during the season. Going forward, being even more solid on our returns is important. Also, continuing to be aggressive and moving a lot to the net. I think that only experience can get you comfortable with being aggressive at the net.”

With the doubles title, Barte will graduate as a four-time All-American in both singles and doubles. She has won the doubles championship twice in a row–this year with Mallory Burdette and last year with Burdette’s older sister, Lindsay.

“There aren’t words to capture what it can feel like,” Barte said. “I really don’t think you can write a better story than being able to go out my senior year, last match of the day, crowd’s there, great weather, and go out on top.”

“I don’t want to say it’s sad [seeing Barte graduate] because it’s the way things go,” Mallory Burdette said. “She had a great four years here and I’m happy I was able to contribute to her getting another doubles title. Part of it is sad but it was a great ending. Hopefully we’ll get the wildcard and we’ll get to play together again in August at the U.S. Open.”

While Barte and Burdette were no newcomers to the spotlight, the singles championship featured Tan, a Cardinal upstart. With a bit of luck and a lot of determination, Tan made it to the finals for the first time in her two years at Stanford–last season, she failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

“I was really happy about how well I did this year,” Tan said. “I didn’t predict I would get this far. I was just happy to have the opportunity to play in the tournament and compete against the top college players in the nation.”

Two opponents retired against Tan–No. 11 Josipa Bek of Clemson retired in the first round, down 2-0 in the first set. No. 17 Lauren Embree, the Gator that clinched the NCAA title for Florida, retired after losing the second set of their semifinal matchup.

In the two matches Tan played start-to-finish; she lost the first set and stormed back to win the next two sets both times. In the second round, she defeated No. 28 Sanaa Bhambri of NC State 5-7, 6-3, 6-1. In the quarterfinals, Tan defeated No. 49 Nina Secerbegovic of Baylor 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. In the round of 16, Tan beat No. 21 Aeriel Ellis of Texas 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Unfortunately, Tan’s luck ran out in the title game. No. 1 Juricova started off hot, winning the first set in a dominating 6-0 performance.

“The first set, I was nervous a lot,” Tan said. “I felt so nervous and tight and couldn’t hit out on my shots and wasn’t playing my game. I feel like it was a bit of the championship vibe and playing the No. 1 girl in the nation and wanting to put up a tough match, but then getting nervous when it started going by really fast.”

The second set was an entirely different story for Tan, however, as she showed some real signs of life. For the third time this tournament, she had to come back from a first-set loss.

After being broken at 2-3, Tan played brilliantly to break Juricova back and tie the second set at 3-3. The game progressed into a tiebreaker–the seventh tiebreaker of the singles tournament for Stanford players.

“The second [set] I was happier about the way I played and I was relaxed,” Tan continued. “After the first set, I told myself that I might as well do my best to relax and just hit out on my shots. If she still hits amazing shots, then it’s ok because I gave it 100 percent of what I had that day.”

Stanford was 3-4 in those seven tiebreakers, including Tan’s loss in the singles championship. Tan’s backhand had been great all day, but late in the match it uncharacteristically failed her and four consecutive backhand errors put her down 0-5–a backhand error sealed the victory for Juricova.

“I feel like on the very close points, she was able to get some shots back that landed on the line several times and helped her get ahead in the tiebreaker,” Tan said. “She did serve very well, too, which helped a lot.”

There were several other impressive Cardinal performances over the weekend. In an all-Stanford quarterfinal matchup of two of the team’s most dominant singles players, freshman Nicole Gibbs, the girl with the best record of the year at 46-6, powered past Barte. The rookie, after playing with a dominating passing game that continually forced volley errors out of Barte, upset the senior in her last singles match in convincing fashion, 6-4, 6-1.

But in the semis, Gibbs succumbed to the top-seeded Juricova in a long, tight match. Juricova struggled to get much past Gibbs and was forced into two tiebreakers. Gibbs narrowly earned the first set and took the lead, but dropped the next two to be eliminated. The final score was a wild one–7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-7 (2).

While the team competition provided some high drama, it ended up being the individual and doubles draws that were most fruitful for the Cardinal, which will have to replace the talents of seniors Barte, Jennifer Yen and Carolyn McVeigh, but returns eight players to the court next year.