Swimmers off to good Pac-10 start Swimmers off to good Pac-10 start (February 27, 2004)

Cardinal tennis teams will be busy at home this weekend

by Keith Peters

Stanford coach Richard Quick has guided his women's swim teams to 12 Pac-10 meet titles since arriving on The Farm in 1988. Only one of those championships, however, has come in the past four years.

Quick and the Cardinal hope to change that this weekend, after getting off to a good start Wednesday during the opening day of the conference finals in Long Beach.

The nationally No. 5-ranked Cardinal were tied with Cal with 116 points after the first two events - the 200-yard medley and 800-yard free relays - at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.

Stanford defended its title in the 200 medley relay when a team of Megan Baumgartner, Tara Kirk, Dana Kirk and Sarah Jones clocked a season-best and NCAA "A" qualifying mark of 1:39.87.

Cal won the second and final event of the opening night by breaking the Pac-10 meet record in the 800 free relay with a time of 7:08.13. Stanford finished fourth in 7:17.73 with a team of Dana Kirk, Desiree Stahley, Tami Ransom and Lacey Boutwell.

The meet continues through Saturday.
Men's volleyball

Stanford snapped a seven-match losing streak with a 30-22, 30-25, 30-24 victory over visiting California on Wednesday night in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match. The 12th-ranked Cardinal (4-9, 6-11) hope to continue their winning ways on tonight at 7 p.m. when LaVerne comes to Burnham Pavilion.

David Vogel led Stanford with 12 kills against the Bears while Chris Ahlfeldt added 11 kills and Kevin Hansen recorded 37 assists. Craig Buell added 11 kills and seven blocks.

Stanford hit .389 in the first game, and limited Cal to .156. Buell recorded seven kills in the game. La Verne (2-7) is 0-5 versus Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponents this season
Women's golf

Stanford shot a final round of 296 on Wednesday to finish sixth at the Arizona Wildcat Invitational in Tucson. The Cardinal finished with a 904. Vanderbilt took top honors with a 869.

Freshman Lauren Todd shot a final round of one-under par 70 to move into a tie for 11th to lead the Cardinal.

Baseball

John Hester collected four hits, including two doubles, as top-ranked Stanford defeated visiting Rikkyo University of Japan, 9-4, in an exhibition game on Tuesday.

Chris Minaker, Chris Carter and Ben Summerhays all homered for the Cardinal while Menlo School grad Ryan Seawell had two hits and drove in a run.

Stanford travels to California for a three-game non-conference series beginning today at 2 p.m., following with games on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Stanford begins a stretch where it will play 15 of its 18 games on the road. Stanford and California have played each other 430 times in school history with the Cardinal holding a 223-207 advantage. Stanford has won 10 straight games between the teams and winning 11 of the past 12 meetings.

Stanford took two-of-three games against Texas to win its eighth consecutive series dating to last year. The Cardinal has also won 16 of its last 17 regular season three-game series, including six in a row on the road and five straight at home.
Women's tennis

The "other" top-ranked Stanford team hosts No. 24 Oregon today at noon, and No. 9 Cal on Saturday at noon.

Senior Lauren Barnikow (16-4) and freshman Theresa Logar (17-2) lead Stanford (8-0) in wins this year.
Men's tennis

Sixth-ranked Stanford defeated visiting Utah, 7-0, on Tuesday as all six singles players swept their opponents in straight sets.

Menlo School grad James Pade won at No. 2 singles, 6-2, 7-5, and Carter Morris did not drop a game in winning at No. 5 singles, 6-0, 6-0.

The Cardinal (6-2) host Arizona today and Arizona State on Saturday.
Women's gymnastics

Stanford is looking for its first road victory today at Oregon State in a 7 p.m. Pac-10 Conference meet.

Despite setting the team national season high score last week versus Cal, the Cardinal (6-3) fell two spots to No. 9 in the latest national rankings.

Stanford's slip in the poll is due to the switch from national team score averages to Regional Qualifying Scores.

The RQS, which determines team seeding for the upcoming NCAA Regional Championship, takes the team and all-around competitor's six best regular season meet scores. Of those six scores, three must be from away meets, while the other three scores can be home or away meet scores. The top score is then eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged to generate the RQS.

Stanford's overall team RQS is 196.560, while the Cardinal remain ranked in the top 15 in all four events
Women's water polo

Third-ranked Stanford travels to the Gaucho Tournament at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday and Sunday.

The Cardinal (5-1) are scheduled to face UC San Diego at 11:20 a.m. on Saturday.
Softball

Seventh-ranked Stanford (11-2) plays in the Worth Wildcat Invitational beginning today in Tucson.

The Cardinal open tournament play against Oklahoma State (9-4) at 9 a.m. before taking on Arizona (16-0) at 5 p.m.

In 13 games this season, the Cardinal are 17 of 20 in stolen bases with freshman lead-off hitter Jackie Rinehart and junior outfielder Katherine Hoffman each with four.

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