Welcome to This Week in Sports. We are The Daily’s sports editors, Madeline Grabb and Ells Boone, and we’ll be walking you through the major games, events and stories from the past week, as well as providing a brief preview of what’s coming up this week.
No. 7 Stanford women’s tennis advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament this past weekend after defeating Weber State 4-0 and No. 17 Oklahoma State 4-1. Both matches were played at the Taube Family Tennis Center. The Cardinal won the doubles point in each of the first two rounds and only dropped one singles match on the weekend. On Friday, the team will face No. 10 Ohio State, again at home, with a spot in the quarterfinals up for grabs.
Men’s tennis also had a successful weekend, traveling to New York City to punch its ticket to the third round after wins over St. John’s and No. 13 Columbia. The Cardinal had little trouble with the Red Storm, not dropping a single set across singles or doubles. Against Columbia, Stanford again won the doubles point and jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Lions pulled two back. Freshman Samir Banerjee clinched the match for the Cardinal with his three-set win on court two. Next weekend, Stanford will travel to Kentucky to take on the No. 4 Wildcats.
No. 9 beach volleyball made history on Friday, earning the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament victory with its opening round win over No. 6 Grand Canyon 3-2. Freshmen Kelly Belardi and Ashley Vincent came back in three sets to further their school-record duo wins in a single season (28) and send the Cardinal to the quarterfinals. The next round did not go as well for Stanford, with No. 2 TCU taking down the Cardinal 3-0.
Women’s lacrosse ended its season on Thursday with a 12-11 loss to Colorado in the Pac-12 semifinals. Junior Sarah Jaques finished the game with four assists and a goal. The NCAA Tournament bracket came out Sunday evening and the Cardinal did not make the field.
No. 7 baseball came up with a huge sweep against No. 20 Arizona State on the road to solidify the Cardinal’s position at the top of the Pac-12 standings. The game scores went 8-6, 12-11, and 9-4 all in favor of Stanford. Junior Alberto Rios continued his recent tear, hitting three homers in the series. The team will next take on Santa Clara on the road on Tuesday, followed by a weekend series at home against Arizona. There are only two Pac-12 series left.
No. 6 Softball lost two of its three match-ups against No. 9 Washington at home over the weekend, settling the Cardinal as the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament. Stanford won the first game, but got shut out in the last two 1-0 and 8-0, respectively. The conference tournament starts Thursday and will be held in Tucson, Ariz. The Cardinal will face Oregon at 6:30 p.m. PT.