I sorely need to catch up on Cardboard activity from the last two weeks, but I emerge from hibernation today to inform you that the #1 Stanford women's tennis team soundly defeated #17 Texas 6-1 in Austin. Stanford will not play in the upcoming indoor national tournament, which has traditionally played an enormous role in seeding teams for the regular season (one of the reasons why Stanford was #12 going into last year's NCAA tourney--that was the first year Stanford skipped indoor natls, I think). Look for Stanford's ranking to drop after an indoor natls champion is crowned.
In any case, Stanford handily won its doubles point, and in singles play, Krista Hardebeck (6-2, 6-0) and #40 Carol Zhao (6-2, 6-3) made short work of their opponents from the #2 and #3 singles courts, respectively. #94 Ellen Tsay dominated from the #5 court (6-1, 6-4) to clinch the team victory. #34-ranked Caroline Doyle lost her match (2-6, 3-6) against #77-ranked Ratnika Batra, who is a freshman from New Delhi, India. Batra played a patient, relatively mistake-free game to Doyle's aggressive approach, which didn't end well for a visibly frustrated Doyle (also a freshman). #6-ranked Kristie Ahn closed out against #22 Breaunna Addison on the #1 singles court, which saw a game effort from Addison, but Ahn prevailed 6-4, 6-3. Finally, #41 Taylor Davidson finished off Lina Padegimaite 6-3, 6-0 to conclude the afternoon.
The team is on the road to Houston tonight to face off against Rice tomorrow at noon CT. I did get the feeling that the singles matches were of the "going through the motions" vibe, but not in a terribly bad way. Maybe they were conserving their energy for tomorrow. However casual one might have thought Stanford looked though, Texas still mostly ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, and Texas players had some real double-take-worthy unforced errors at times as well. Also, three of Stanford's singles players are freshmen, and all three are ranked players, though Doyle did lose today.
We'll see how the frosh develop, but the season is off to a good, undefeated start. I overheard two Texas alumni talking to each other early in the singles matches--the first one jokingly asked the second: "Well coach, what's your analysis?" The second one deadpanned: "We're gonna lose." That's pretty much how it went.
Score: http://www.texassports.com/news/2014/1/3...41617.aspx
Opponent recap: http://texassports.com/news/2014/1/31/WT...44017.aspx
In any case, Stanford handily won its doubles point, and in singles play, Krista Hardebeck (6-2, 6-0) and #40 Carol Zhao (6-2, 6-3) made short work of their opponents from the #2 and #3 singles courts, respectively. #94 Ellen Tsay dominated from the #5 court (6-1, 6-4) to clinch the team victory. #34-ranked Caroline Doyle lost her match (2-6, 3-6) against #77-ranked Ratnika Batra, who is a freshman from New Delhi, India. Batra played a patient, relatively mistake-free game to Doyle's aggressive approach, which didn't end well for a visibly frustrated Doyle (also a freshman). #6-ranked Kristie Ahn closed out against #22 Breaunna Addison on the #1 singles court, which saw a game effort from Addison, but Ahn prevailed 6-4, 6-3. Finally, #41 Taylor Davidson finished off Lina Padegimaite 6-3, 6-0 to conclude the afternoon.
The team is on the road to Houston tonight to face off against Rice tomorrow at noon CT. I did get the feeling that the singles matches were of the "going through the motions" vibe, but not in a terribly bad way. Maybe they were conserving their energy for tomorrow. However casual one might have thought Stanford looked though, Texas still mostly ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, and Texas players had some real double-take-worthy unforced errors at times as well. Also, three of Stanford's singles players are freshmen, and all three are ranked players, though Doyle did lose today.
We'll see how the frosh develop, but the season is off to a good, undefeated start. I overheard two Texas alumni talking to each other early in the singles matches--the first one jokingly asked the second: "Well coach, what's your analysis?" The second one deadpanned: "We're gonna lose." That's pretty much how it went.
Score: http://www.texassports.com/news/2014/1/3...41617.aspx
Opponent recap: http://texassports.com/news/2014/1/31/WT...44017.aspx