It hurts to lose on Senior Night, so on Tuesday night the No. 13 Stanford women’s tennis team made sure to avoid that fate. In its final home match of the regular season, the Cardinal (14-3, 6-1 Pac-12) sent the University of Hawaii women’s tennis team packing with a 7-0 win.
The Stanford women easily secured the doubles point and six singles wins, leaving the Hawaii women with only 17 combined game wins. The Cardinal sweep this time around was a repeat of last fall’s encounter, when Stanford took all the match points while visiting Kona.
Head Coach Lele Forood noted the play of her No. 1 and 2 players, saying that their strength bodes well for the future.
“We had some pretty impressive scores in the match today, great for building for the big matches this weekend,” Forood said.
Among those impressive scores was the doubles win by Stanford’s No. 1 team, the dynamic pair of senior Stacey Tan and sophomore Ellen Tsay, who are ranked No. 43 nationally. They struck down Hawaii’s No 1. duo of Katarina Poljakova and Martina Kostalova 8-3.
Stanford’s No. 2 pair of juniors Kristie Ahn and Amelia Herring had a slightly tougher time, ultimately pulling out the 8-6 win. The third pair of Natalie Dillon and Krista Hardebeck cruised to an 8-1 victory.
Coach Forood praised her team’s consistency, remarking, “Everyone was taking care of their own business today.”
Stanford freshman Lindsey Kostas clinched the singles point with a 6-1, 6-1 rout at the No. 6 spot. Ahn and Tsay also posted wins by the same score at the No. 1 and No. 4 spots respectively.
The match gave the Cardinal its third straight victory and 10th of the last 11 competitions. The Rainbow Wahines concluded their four-game tour of California with their third loss of the visit.
Stanford will now continue charging ahead toward the postseason. The Cardinal moved up one spot in the national rankings and will look to try to keep building momentum through its final three matchups of the regular season.
On Friday, the Cardinal heads to Tucson to play No. 75 Arizona, before visiting Tempe to take on No. 21 Arizona State, a match which the team identified as a vital battle.
Each of the next three matches—the last of which is against Cal on April 19—will be a challenge for the Cardinal so Forood said the team is keeping their focus on the regular season.
“Nobody is thinking about the post-season yet,” Forood said.
Contact Anna Blue at ablue ‘at’ stanford.edu.