With victories in all seven matches today against the unranked Princeton Tigers (2-2), the No. 1 Stanford women’s tennis team pitched its third consecutive dual match shutout to kick off the 2019 season.
Junior Emily Arbuthnott was the first off the court, blanking her opponent in the first set (6-0, 6-2) en route to her 10th straight victory in singles this season, the longest streak on the team. After narrowly taking the first set, sophomore Janice Shin powered back in the second (7-5, 6-1) for her eighth straight win for the season.
Senior Caroline Lampl clinched the victory over the Tigers, delivering the day’s fourth win with a takedown of Princeton senior Nicole Kalhorn (6-3, 6-1).
The 7-0 Cardinal win also saw the return of former Stanford women’s tennis star Laura Granville, now the Tigers’ head coach. Winning 58 consecutive singles matches over her two years on the Farm, Granville won NCAA singles titles in her freshman and sophomore years before turning professional.
Now 3-0, the Cardinal was scheduled to play UC Davis (0-3) on Saturday at noon, but the match was postponed due to rain concerns. A time has not yet been set for the matchup against the struggling Aggies, a team that has not won a season dual match since April of 2018.
With a dominant win against the Tigers and another likely to come against UC Davis, the Cardinal looks poised to make a run for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship next weekend in Seattle. Hosted by the University of Washington, the 16-team tournament will feature each of the top ten teams in women’s tennis, including last year’s NCAA Division 1 runner-up, the No. 2 Vanderbilt Commodores. The Cardinal defeated Vanderbilt in the national finals last April to grab their 20th national title.
The Cardinal returned their entire starting singles and doubles lineups from last year’s national championship squad. However, the team has hosted each of its three matches and has not yet had to travel, nor has it faced a ranked opponent in dual match play thus far in 2019; next weekend’s tournament in Seattle should prove to be the team’s first real test this season.
Contact Shan Reddy at rsreddy ‘at’ stanford.edu.