Davidson, Zhao claim doubles title at Pac-12s

April 27, 2015, 11:20 p.m.

The No. 13 Stanford women’s tennis team (15-5, 7-3 Pac-12) wrapped up its regular season at the Pac-12 Championships this weekend in Ojai, California. Five of the team’s six starters represented the Cardinal in both the singles and doubles championship draws, and the Stanford duo of Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle ultimately emerged victorious in the doubles draw.

(NICK SALAZAR/The Stanford Daily)
Sophomores Carol Zhao (above) and Taylor Davidson showed their class in the Pac-12 tournament, dominating the competition en route to Stanford’s first conference doubles title since 2006.  (NICK SALAZAR/The Stanford Daily)

In the singles bracket, junior Krista Hardebeck battled past Colorado’s Julyette Steur in three sets to set up a clash with the tournament’s No. 1 seed, No. 14 Giuliana Olmos of USC. Despite a valiant effort, Hardebeck dropped the match 7-6, 6-2 to Olmos, who would progress to the semifinals of the tournament.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal were well-represented in the 16-team doubles field, with sophomores Davidson and Zhao as the tournament’s top seed and sophomore Caroline Doyle and senior Ellen Tsay on the opposite side of the draw as the No. 4 seed. Both teams cruised through their respective portions of the tournament with relative ease, setting up an all-Stanford final and ensuring that the conference champion would be Cardinal for the eighth time in the last nine years.

Davidson and Zhao came into the match as the nation’s No. 2 doubles team with a 28-6 record. The Cardinal’s No. 2 doubles team of Doyle and Tsay also fared extremely well during the course of the season, compiling a 25-7 record and earning a year-end No. 18 national ranking.

While Doyle and Tsay kept the match close initially and forced a seventh game in the first set, Davidson and Zhao took over in the second and displayed a dominance that has been characteristic of their season, earning a 7-5, 6-2 victory to grab the conference crown. Both teams figure to make deep runs in the NCAA doubles tournament.

The Cardinal will now rest up this week before entering NCAA tournament play on May 9.

Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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