Publication Date: Friday, May 27, 2005
STANFORD ROUNDUP
Stanford women's doubles advances to NCAA semifinals
Stanford women's doubles advances to NCAA semifinals
(May 27, 2005) by Rick Eymer
Could the NCAA individual women's doubles tennis tournament come down to an all-Stanford final?
That's how it's shaping up after both Cardinal doubles teams won their quarterfinal matches on Thursday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, GA.
Alice Barnes and Erin Burdette advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Olga Borisova and Marianna Yuferova of Virginia Commonwealth.
Barnes and Burdette will meet TCU's Ana Cetnik and former Stanford player Story Tweedie-Yates today. The TCU pair beat third-seeded Audrey Banada and Megan Bradley of Miami, 6-3, 6-1.
Amber Liu and Anne Yelsey also reached today's semifinals after upsetting the fourth-seeded UCLA team of Daniella Bercek and Riza Zalameda, 6-3, 6-0.
Yelsey and Liu meet second-seeded Audra Cohen-Cristelle Grier of Northwestern.
The doubles final is scheduled for Saturday.
Liu, the two-time defending singles champion, bowed out of the singles tournament in the first round with a shoulder injury and no one else reached the quarterfinals. Yelsey and Theresa Logar each won twice before falling in the round of 16.
Barnes and Burdette beat the top-seeded Caroline Basu and Shadisha Robinson of Georgia, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, to advance. It was their second victory over the Bulldog tandem this season.
"Throughout the whole match everyone was serving really well so that put a lot of pressure on us," Barnes said. "We knew that if we could get that one break it would be the difference. We were down 2-1 in the third set and down love-40 on our serve and we came back to win that game. If we would have lost that game this match might have been a different story."
Liu and Yelsey also beat a seeded team (5-8) in Whitney Benik and Lolita Frangulyan of Florida, 6-1, 7-5, to reach the quarterfinals.
"We were pretty much on in the first set, but they really picked it up in the second. Their serves got a lot better," Liu said. "They were not too sharp in the first but they brought it to another level in the second. It's a great feeling to have two teams in the quarterfinals. It's the first year since I've been here that we had really good doubles up and down the lineup all year long."
In singles, Logar was eliminated by her former doubles partner, Tweedie-Yates, the top singles player for Texas Christian, and a top 16 seed.
"I know her pretty well," said Tweedie-Yates, who spent her first three years at Stanford and was a member of two NCAA title teams. "We played doubles this summer, roomed together, and hit with each other a lot."
Men's tennis
Sam Warburg and KC Corkery, the second-ranked doubles team in the nation, were scheduled to open play Thursday in College Station, Texas, against Oklahoma State's Daniel Byrnes and Mark Van Elden. The match was delayed because of thunderstorms, which are forecast through the weekend.
Warburg and Corkery were both upset in the first round of the singles tournament.
In the men's singles, the second-seeded Warburg lost in three sets to Old Dominion's Izak van der Merwe, while Corkery fell in straight sets to Auburn's Gabor Zoltan Pelva.
Baseball
Stanford gets its final chance to move up in the Pac-10 standings when it travels to USC for a three-game series beginning today at 7 p.m.
A sweep of the final regular-season series could mean a third-place finish for the Cardinal (11-10, 31-20) while a series loss could mean seventh place.
"We've got to play solid, all-around baseball," Stanford junior second baseman Jed Lowrie said. "When we put up runs we've had the balance of games go in our favor. We've had some good streaks but we've been inconsistent. We need to get hot at the right time."
Junior right-hander Mark Romanczuk (5-5, 4.22) gets the nod today against one of the top pitchers in the country in Ian Kennedy (10-2, 2.55).
Jeff Gilmore (9-2, 3.61) takes the mound for Saturday's 2 p.m. start. Stanford coach Mark Marquess has yet to name a starter for Sunday's 1 p.m. contest.
"A big key is if we can put a couple of runs up early on Kennedy," Stanford sophomore third baseman Adam Sorgi said. "We have to show we can beat the best and ride that through the series. Even if we get shutout, we'll be back and we'll be fine. We'll be there for the playoffs."
Stanford has won eight straight season series from the Trojans, and beat them two out of three at Sunken Diamond earlier this season. Romanczuk pitched a four-hit shutout in one of those games.
Stanford has dropped four of its first seven conference series with the four series losses (Oregon State, at Arizona State, at California, Arizona) marking the first time since 1993 that Stanford has lost more than three series in a season.
Track and field
Stanford sends 46 athletes to compete at the NCAA West Regional in Eugene, Ore., today and Saturday.
The top five finishers in each individual event and the top three relay teams advance to the NCAA championships beginning June 8 at Sacramento State.
Stanford senior Ian Dobson and sophomore Brett Gotcher have already qualified in the 10,000. Dobson raced a school record 27:59.72 - the top collegiate time this year - at the Stanford Invitational to earn his berth. Gotcher went 28:59.27, also at the Invitational, to meet the standard.
Anita Siraki and two-time defending champion Alicia Craig also qualified in the 10,000. Siraki finished 33:37.04 at the Stanford Invitational and Craig went 34:02.79 at the Pac-10 Championship.
Women's crew
The eighth-ranked Stanford Division I Eights take to the water today through Sunday in the NCAA championships at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center in Rancho Cordova, CA.
The regional features 17 races over the weekend.
Men's golf
Stanford opens the NCAA championships on Wednesday at the Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland.
It's Stanford's first trip to the finals since 2001.
"We are really looking forward to a great opportunity to compete in the NCAA championship," Stanford coach Conrad Ray said. "It's been a few years since Stanford has been able to qualify. The guys have worked hard all year and are very deserving of the chance. I think we will surprise some people just as we were able to do in the regional last week. The great thing about golf is that you never know who is going to get hot."
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