The Stanford women made the most of their home-court advantage last weekend, easily taking their first two matches in the NCAA Tournament at Taube Family Tennis Center. The No. 2 Cardinal (25-0, 8-0 Pac-10) blanked unranked Illinois-Chicago 4-0 on Saturday before easily handling No. 27 Pepperdine, winning by the same score.
Despite removing the freshman-sophomore duo of Kristie Ahn and Stacey Tan from the lineup, the Cardinal cruised to a comfortable win against Illinois-Chicago, taking two doubles matches and winning the third on a forfeit. Freshman Nicole Gibbs, the No. 18 player in the country, was dominant in her postseason debut as she defeated the Flames’ Ilinca Cristescu 6-0, 6-1. Sophomore Mallory Burdette and senior Hillary Barte won both of their matches next, clinching the Stanford win.
Stanford was still in control on Sunday against Pepperdine, securing the doubles point as the Barte-Burdette duo joined Tan and senior Carolyn McVeigh in earning 8-5 wins. The singles portion was more of the same, as Barte, Gibbs and junior Veronica Li lost a combined 10 sets as they each swept their opponents.
The Cardinal, which extended its streak of consecutive dual-match victories to 181 yesterday, now prepares for the round of 16. Stanford will continue its defense of the 2010 title against Northwestern on Friday, May 20 at 6 p.m.
See tomorrow’s edition of The Daily for more coverage of the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
— Nate Adams