No. 35 Stanford women’s tennis (10-0, 6-0 Pac-12) nearly swept No. 49 Washington (9-5, 1-4 Pac-12) in a 6-1 victory at Taube on Saturday.

The team handily captured the first point from the doubles super-set, as they have in every single match this season. From there, nearly all the Cardinal clinched the match victory with three easy singles wins from freshman Ana Geller, sophomore Angelica Blake and fifth-year Emma Higuchi on courts four, three and six, respectively. On court five, junior Sara Choy also managed to pull a fourth win in straight sets, although it took her longer to do so.

At first it seemed like fifth-year Emily Arbuthnott would provide another point for the squad. She cruised to a 6-2 victory in the first set over Sarah-Maude Fortin, but the Washington freshman fought back in the second set, 6-4,  to force a tiebreaker.

As the tiebreaker dragged on it became clear that the winner of the match would be the player who made the fewest mistakes as the two traded points back and forth. While ahead 2-1, Arbuthnott double faulted and tied Fortin, but immediately redeemed herself with a service ace. Several points later, Fortin made awkward contact with the ball to send it wide. Arbuthnott soon sent a wide return of her own into the stands. Fortin would end up winning 14-12 when she sent a shot close to the net to Arbuthnott’s right side where the Cardinal fifth-year couldn’t contest. 

A similar story played out on court one where senior Michaela Gordon faced Washington’s Vanessa Wong, ranked 30th nationally, in another third set tiebreaker. Wong played Gordon close throughout the match, which included grinding out a second set win 7-6 after falling in the first set. However it was Gordon who eventually outlasted Wong, winning the tiebreaker 12-10.

Gordon and the rest of the Cardinal need to carry their momentum to Friday, when the team will take on No. 5 Pepperdine (11-2, 2-0 WCC) on the Farm in what will be the team’s hardest match of the season so far.