April 27, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Stanford men get a shot

by Rick Eymer

Senior Sam Warburg and junior KC Corkery may have set the tone for the Stanford men's tennis team's championship hopes over the weekend.

Warburg successfully defended his Pac-10 singles title, and Warburg and Corkery paired up to win the conference doubles title on Sunday in Ojai.

Warburg and Corkery hope they have set the tone as the Cardinal await word on where its plays in the first round of the NCAA tournament, which begins May 14.

It has been a disappointing season for the team, but Warburg (36-5 overall) hasn't let that affect his play.

"He's had two great years and he keeps improving," Stanford coach John Whitlinger said. "It's never easy defending a title and that was a tremendous effort. Sam puts a lot of pressure on himself and that's part of what makes him good."

Warburg, ranked second in the nation, survived a difficult match, beating Washington's Alex Vlaski, 7-5, 7-5, to become the first repeat champion since Stanford's Alex O'Brien accomplished the feat in 1991-92. It was also Stanford's 10th individual title since 1987.

In doubles, Warburg and Corkery are the defending NCAA champs. This year they added the Pac-10 title after beating a team from Washington, 8-6.

"I think we have two guys with legitimate chances to win a (NCAA) singles title," Whitlinger said. "I'm not going to put one over the other because they both have the opportunity. It's going to be interesting to see what happens."

Corkery, ranked 13th in the country, has won 28 of the 34 singles matches he has played this year, and is 20-3 in duals.

Warburg has lost twice in dual-match play - to top-ranked Benedikt Dorsch of Baylor and 15-ranked Doug Stewart of Virginia - but also owns wins over four Top 10 players.

"That's going to be a rough tournament," Whitlinger said. "Whoever wins it will have to earn it. You rarely breeze through."

Whitlinger can speak from experience. He won the 1974 NCAA singles title and teamed with Jim Delaney to win the doubles title the same year.

Stanford (13-10) will likely finish the season with its most losses since dropping 12 in 1969 but that hasn't diminished the Cardinal's enthusiasm for playing in the NCAA tournament.

"The guys are frustrated a little bit but they are getting back to work," Whitlinger said. "They don't feel they are that far away. We're not giving up on the season. They know they are competitive. We've been 4-3 with most every good team we've played, with the exception being Baylor and we'd love another chance at them."

Warburg will likely lead the charge. He's won 23 of the 26 matches he's played against ranked opponents and he's survived several grueling matches, including one in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament in which he was two points from losing to Washington's Alex Slovic. Warburg came back to win the tiebreaker.

"You always have one of those matches in the tournament," Whitlinger said. "There's always one of those where you just have to figure it out. Like the NCAA basketball tournament, it's all about survive and advance."

James Wan won his first two matches to reach the main draw quarterfinals, where he lost to Vlaski. Phil Sheng lost in the first round, and Corkery defaulted with an injury.

Phil Kao reached the quarterfinals of the invitational draw before losing. Jon Wong, Eric McKean and David Ryan all lost in the first round.

Women's tennis

Playing without two-time national defending champion Amber Liu, and senior Erin Burdette, who is nursing a right shoulder injury, Stanford still managed to have three players reach the semifinals of the Pac-10 individual singles tournament over the weekend.

While USC's Nicole Leimbach beat Barnes for the singles title on Sunday, Barnes came back to win the doubles title with Anne Yelsey.

Yelsey and Theresa Logar also reached the semifinals.

Barnes was also the Pac-10 singles runnerup last year, and won the doubles title with Burdette.

Stanford (21-0) brings a 50-match wining streak into the NCAA tournament, which begins May 13.

Barnes and Yelsey had played together once before sweeping through the conference tournament. They beat Arizona's Dianne Hollands and Mlaker, 8-1, to win the title.

In singles, the 22nd-ranked Barnes lost in three sets to the ninth-ranked Leimbach.

In addition to Barnes, Yelsey and Logar, freshman Whitney Deason also won twice to reach the quarterfinals, where she withdrew with an injury.

In the Invitational, senior Kara Guzman won her first match in three sets, but dropped her second match of the day to fall in the Round of 16. Junior Jessica Leck also won her first match, but fell in the second round, while fellow junior Joanna Kao dropped her opening match of the day.

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