The No. 10 Stanford women’s tennis team (7-1) returns home from Gainesville, Florida with mixed results versus No. 16 Duke (4-5) and No. 2 Florida (8-1). The Cardinal made quick work of the Blue Devils on Saturday, with a dominating 4-0 victory, before falling to the Gators in a 4-3 heartbreaker on Sunday.
Stanford entered the weekend as the slight favorite against a reeling Duke team. Having started the season as the No. 4 squad in the country, the Blue Devils had dropped four matches in a row to top-20 teams. The Cardinal locked up the doubles point following decisive victories at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots. The team quickly took a 2-0 lead following junior Krista Hardebeck’s most impressive win of the season, a 6-0, 6-1 dismantling of Duke’s Alyssa Smith. Sophomore Carol Zhao, Stanford’s stalwart No. 1 singles player, gave the Cardinal an insurmountable lead with her straight-set victory over Duke’s No. 38 Ester Goldfield, allowing fellow sophomore Caroline Doyle to clinch the 4-0 blanking for the Cardinal.
Tough way to suffer its first loss but the Cardinal (7-1) showed plenty of fight in 4-3 defeat at No. 2 Florida: http://t.co/ZpCXYTjRp1
— StanfordWTennis (@StanfordWTennis) February 22, 2015
Sunday morning provided the weekend’s real entertainment at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex. In front of a crowd of over 1,000 people, Stanford took on host and arch-rival Florida in the best rivalry in women’s college tennis. The two teams have combined for 14 of the sport’s last 19 national titles, including four of the last five. Although the Cardinal won last year’s edition of the rivalry in a 7-0 blanking of Florida, this year’s Gators featured a much stronger lineup, with all six of their players featured in the top 100 in the country. In addition, the Gators brought a 137-game home winning streak into the match, the second longest streak of any Division I NCAA sport.
The Cardinal looked ready to put an end to Florida’s remarkable streak early on in doubles play. Despite a loss at No. 3, the Cardinal triumphed at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots to clinch the crucial doubles point and take a 1-0 lead. However, Florida rebounded in singles play, showing its experience and depth by winning the first set of all six matches.
The Gators wrapped up straight-set victories at Nos. 4, 5 and 6 to take a commanding 3-1 lead. However, the Cardinal refused to back down. Zhao, No. 10 in the nation, fought back to upset No. 6 Brooke Austin, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. On Court 2, No. 3-ranked freshman Josie Kuhlman looked ready to clinch the match for Florida over Stanford’s Taylor Davidson, ranked No. 14. With the match dead even in a third-set tiebreaker, Kuhlman raced to a 5-0 lead and was two points from victory. However, sophomore Davidson displayed the resilience that has epitomized her play all season by coming back to win the match 10-8 in the tiebreaker, keeping Stanford’s upset hopes alive.
With the match tied 3-3, all focus shifted to the Court 3 battle between No. 13 Brianna Morgan and Stanford’s No. 16 Caroline Doyle. After losing the first set 6-1, Doyle rallied to take the second, 6-2. At 3-3 in the final set, Morgan proved too much for Doyle, as she took three straight games to win the match. Morgan’s victory clinched the match for Florida, and handed Stanford its first loss of the season in heartbreaking fashion.
Despite the loss, the Cardinal proved that they can hang with the best in the country. The team ends their challenging non-conference schedule, and will now enter conference play in a loaded Pac-12 that features national title contenders in rivals Cal, UCLA and USC.
The Cardinal will look to rebound as they take on No. 5 Cal this Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Taube Stadium. The match will be aired live on Pac-12 Networks.
Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu.