04-08-2025, 12:12 PM
The tennis season is winding down. Stanford plays its final conference match this Saturday and it's a big one at home vs. Cal.
Stanford and Cal are on parallel paths. In the national ITA rankings, Stanford is 8th, Cal 9th. In the ACC conference standings, Cal is 3rd, Stanford 4th. They have both lost to Wake Forest and NC State in conference. Stanford lost to Virginia. Cal beat Virginia. But Stanford has the better non-conference win over top 10 Columbia.
Getting a top 8 national seed for the NCAA tournament would be extremely big (maybe even h.uuuuuge) for Stanford. Top 8 means hosting a regional. And if you win the regional, you get to host a super regional. Stanford has lost on the road at super regionals each of the last 3 years. They are looking for a breakthrough season to get past the super regional and on to the NCAA quarters.
Stanford's success this season is especially impressive when you realize that they have played the last month (including a big win over Duke this past Sunday) without Samir Banerjee who is ranked top 15 singles. I hope that he is able to come back down the stretch.
It all starts with beating Cal on Saturday. Go Card!
Stanford and Cal are on parallel paths. In the national ITA rankings, Stanford is 8th, Cal 9th. In the ACC conference standings, Cal is 3rd, Stanford 4th. They have both lost to Wake Forest and NC State in conference. Stanford lost to Virginia. Cal beat Virginia. But Stanford has the better non-conference win over top 10 Columbia.
Getting a top 8 national seed for the NCAA tournament would be extremely big (maybe even h.uuuuuge) for Stanford. Top 8 means hosting a regional. And if you win the regional, you get to host a super regional. Stanford has lost on the road at super regionals each of the last 3 years. They are looking for a breakthrough season to get past the super regional and on to the NCAA quarters.
Stanford's success this season is especially impressive when you realize that they have played the last month (including a big win over Duke this past Sunday) without Samir Banerjee who is ranked top 15 singles. I hope that he is able to come back down the stretch.
It all starts with beating Cal on Saturday. Go Card!
"We have an unwritten rule around here not to do anything stupid."
-Casey Jacobsen, Feb 3, 2000