No. 20 Stanford women’s tennis (6-3, 1-1 Pac-12) came away with mixed results in the desert this weekend, notching a comfortable win over No. 64 Arizona (9-3, 0-1) in its conference opener before narrowly falling to No. 36 Arizona State (7-4, 1-1) on Saturday.
Stanford, riding the momentum of four straight wins, including an upset of the No. 7 team in the country last week, got off to a strong start against the Wildcats, clinching the doubles point with a pair of victories on Courts 1 and 3.
A rare second-set retirement from junior Taylor Davidson at the No. 1 singles spot briefly brought the teams even at one point apiece, before Krista Hardebeck and Caroline Doyle finished off their opponents in straight sets on Courts 3 and 2, respectively.
Freshman Caroline Lampl earned the first clinch of her career with her 7-5, 6-2 victory over Devin Chypyha at the No. 4 spot. Classmate Melissa Lord also posted a win at the No. 5 spot, while a loss from Lindsey Kostas made the final score 5-2.
Stanford then made the short road trip to Tempe for its matchup against Arizona State on Saturday. The Cardinal were handed a surprising 4-3 loss, only the second time the Sun Devils have topped the Cardinal in 56 meetings.
The loss ended the Cardinal women’s five-match win streak, and marked only the second defeat for Stanford’s No. 1 doubles team of Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle, ranked third in the country.
After the Sun Devils clinched the doubles point, Hardebeck and Lord earned straight-set victories on Courts 3 and 5, while Davidson lost to Desirae Krawcyz at the top spot to even the match at two. A Doyle loss and Lampl 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win at the No. 4 spot tied the match 3-3, but Arizona State’s Gussie O’Sullivan’s win over Stanford’s Kimberly Yee at No. 6 was enough to clinch the match for ASU.
Next Friday, March 11, Stanford hosts USC at Taube Family Tennis Center at 1:30 p.m., kicking off the first of a seven-match series on The Farm.
Contact Kit Ramgopal at kramgopa ‘at’ stanford.edu.