This past weekend, the Stanford men’s and women’s tennis teams put on a rough showing at the the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Surprise, Arizona.
Seven players qualified to play in the tournament for the Cardinal: sophomore Michaela Gordon, junior Emily Arbuthnott, senior Kimberly Yee, senior Caroline Lampl, junior Melissa Lord, senior Sameer Kumar and junior William Genesen. The duos of Arbuthnott/Gordon and Lampl/Yee also qualified for the women’s doubles draw.
After strong showings at the ITA Northwest Regional Championship a few weeks ago, in which both reached the semifinals of the tournament, Genesen and Kumar each lost their first round singles matches and headed to the consolation draw. Genesen fell to Tulane’s Ewan Moore (3-6, 6-4, 6-3), and Kumar lost to Virginia’s Ryan Goetz in a tough fought marathon match (6-4, 1-6, 7-5). Both Moore and Goetz lost their subsequent second round matches.
In the consolation draw, Genesen was defeated by Illinois’ Alex Brown in the first round (6-3, 7-5), ending his tournament play. Kumar made a run for the consolation title, making it through the first and second rounds in tightly contested matches against Dartmouth’s Charlie Broom (5-7, 6-2, 6-2), Florida’s Johannes Ingildsen (7-5, 2-6, 6-4), and North Carolina’s Josh Peck (6-1, 7-6(0)) before falling to Notre Dame’s Alex Lebedev (6-4, 6-1) in the finals.
Kumar was not the only Cardinal player to leave Surprise with a consolation title. After losing in the first round of the women’s singles bracket to Vanderbilt’s Amanda Meyer (4-6, 6-2, 7-5), Arbuthnott dominated the consolation draw, losing only a combined 12 games in three matches before handily defeating South Carolina’s Ingrid Gamara Martins (6-3, 6-2) in the semifinals. In the consolation championship match Sunday, Arbuthnott took down Michigan’s Chiara Lommer (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).
It was a tough and quick tournament for Stanford’s other two women’s singles qualifiers, Lord and Gordon, who both lost each of their two first-round matches in the main draw and consolation draw.
In doubles, Arbuthnott/Gordon their opening round match to UCLA’s Bolton/Hart (6-4, 6-2), and were unable to play in their first round match of the consolation draw. Lampl/Yee took down Pennsylvania’s Kowalska/Krunic (6-0, 6-7(4), 1-0(5)) in the first round of the main draw before falling to Pepperdine’s Lahey/Levashova (7-6(4), 6-2) in the second.
Lahey/Levashova were defeated in the tournament championship by Clemson’s Leduc/Navarro, the duo that Arbuthnott/Gordon took down in Pacific Palisades last month (8-7(4)) to qualify for this national tournament.
The tournament was the final event of the fall schedule for the Cardinal tennis teams.
Contact Shan Reddy at rsreddy ‘at’ stanford.edu.