Stanford women all set Stanford women all set (May 06, 2005)

Defending champs open at home, but men will travel

by Rick Eymer

While it may not rival the six consecutive NCAA titles between 1986-91, the Stanford women's tennis team can still look back with pride on its past six years in the NCAA tournament.

The top-ranked Cardinal (21-0) can also look forward to new accomplishments, and setting yet another standard of excellence.

Defending team champions Stanford received the overall No. 1 seed in the 64-team field as the NCAA tournament opens next Friday, May 13, with the first two rounds at the Taube Tennis Center.

The Stanford men's tennis team will travel to Pepperdine to begin their quest in the NCAA, playing San Diego in the first round on Saturday, May 14. The 22nd-ranked Cardinal (13-10) have never lost an opening round match in the NCAA tournament and beat the Toreros earlier this season.

The women, on a 50-match winning streak, have reached the NCAA championship match in each of the past six seasons, winning four titles. Stanford has never reached the title match in seven straight years.

Junior Amber Liu will also be looking to make history of her own. She's the two-time defending national singles champion and no individual has ever won three in succession.

Stanford is sending a full complement of players into the NCAA individual tournament, the first school to send as many as seven players.

Liu will be joined by Alice Barnes, Erin Burdette, Whitney Deason, Pinewood grad Lejla Hodzic, Theresa Logar and Anne Yelsey.

In addition, two doubles teams will compete: Barnes and Burdette, and Liu and Yelsey.

All seven singles players are ranked among the top 65.

Stanford meets Army (23-4) in the first round at 2 p.m. That match will be preceded by Oregon and Fresno State at 10 a.m. The winners meet on Saturday, May 14 for the right to advance to Georgia for the Sweet Sixteen beginning May 19.

The Cardinal won 26 consecutive postseason matches - a school record - during their six-year run as national champions before Texas ended the streak in the third round in 1992.

This year, Stanford enters the postseason with a 34-2 NCAA mark since losing in the third round of the 1998 tournament to Duke. The Cardinal are in the midst of their best stretch in postseason ever.

It should get even better in the first two rounds next week as Stanford looks to add to its 83-match home winning streak that dates to February of 1999.

Stanford has never lost an opening round match, and has lost in the second round once - in 1985 - and the Cardinal have been in every NCAA tournament since its present format began in 1982.

Army will be playing in its fifth NCAA tournament and has yet to win a match. The Cadets come to Stanford riding a 13-match win streak after winning the Patriot League title. The 23 wins are a school record.

"If we're going to play someone, we might as well play the best," Army coach Paul Peck said.

Stanford has never played Army, and has beaten both Fresno State (7-0) and Oregon (6-1) earlier this season.

The Stanford men go on the road for the first two rounds for the first time since the field was expanded to 64 in 1999.

"We're happy to be in," Stanford coach John Whitlinger said. "We look forward to playing on the road and e know San Diego is going to be a tough opponent."

Host Pepperdine and UC Irvine meet in the other first-round match, with the winners playing Sunday, May 15 for the right to advance to the round of 16 at Texas A&M.

Stanford beat the Toreros, 7-0, earlier in the season, but dropped a 4-3 decision to the Waves.

Stanford reached the Elite Eight before losing to USC last season, and have been to the Sweet 16 every year except 2002.

Sam Warburg and KC Corkery will be looking to defend their NCAA doubles title, and could become the first Stanford duo to win twice. Jim Delaney was the last to win two national doubles titles - in 1973-74 - but he did it with different partners (including Whitlinger in 74).

Both players are also among the elite in the singles tournament, and Warburg is the nation's top-ranked player.

Stanford has won 15 titles since the current format started in 1977, but none since 2000.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]