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 softball hosted a regional this past weekend, going 3-0 and moving on to the Super Regionals for the second straight year. The Cardinal played a nervy first game against Long Beach State, winning 1-0 off of strong pitching from senior Alana Vawter, and overpowered Florida in two separate match-ups to set up a weekend series with Duke in North Carolina next weekend.
Men’s golf punched its ticket to the NCAA Championships with its second-place finish at the Las Vegas Regional last week. Fifth-year Ethan Ng finished fourth overall at the regional, followed closely by junior Michael Thorbjornsen, who tied for fifth place. Overall, the Cardinal set a school record with a 57-under score. The NCAA Championships will begin on Friday in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Over the weekend, women’s golf began play at the NCAA Championships and overtook Wake Forest to secure the No. 1 overall seed heading into match play Tuesday. Sophomore Rose Zhang made history, winning the individual NCAA title for the second straight year. She is the first woman to ever win multiple individual national titles. The Cardinal will begin match play against No. 8 Pepperdine on Tuesday.
No. 7-seed women’s tennis made it to the NCAA Semifinals this past week before bowing out to No. 3 NC State and world No. 107 Diana Shnaider. In the quarterfinals, the Cardinal upset No. 2 Texas A&M 4-0. Senior Angelica Blake, sophomore Valencia Xu and freshman Alexis Blokhina won the singles matches to clinch the match for Stanford. The Cardinal’s luck ran out in the next round, as the ladies were swept 4-0 by the Wolfpack.
No. 3 baseball solidified its position as the No. 1 seed for the Pac-12 Tournament with its road sweep of Washington State. The Cardinal needed extra innings in the opener to finish the job, but junior Tommy Troy pulled through with a solo homer in the 10th inning to pull ahead. Junior Carter Graham also had a productive series, hitting two home runs in the third game and going 3-for-4 in the second match-up. Stanford is looking to repeat as Pac-12 Tournament champions in the second-ever edition of the tournament.