Neel Ramachandran – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 07 Oct 2021 18:00:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Neel Ramachandran – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Defense stifles Trojans in 17-3 Stanford victory https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/09/defense-stifles-trojans-in-17-3-stanford-victory/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/09/defense-stifles-trojans-in-17-3-stanford-victory/#respond Sun, 09 Sep 2018 16:40:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1143597 Entering this season, Stanford touted a Heisman-contending running back in Bryce Love, an arm with elite potential in K.J. Costello, and a receiving corps with the size and strength to match up favorably against anyone in the country. The biggest preseason question mark was, supposedly, a young defensive unit with limited game experience.

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Entering this season, Stanford touted a Heisman-contending running back in Bryce Love, an arm with elite potential in K.J. Costello, and a receiving corps with the size and strength to match up favorably against anyone in the country. The biggest preseason question mark was, supposedly, a young defensive unit with limited game experience.

Two games into the season, that question mark seems to have been answered. The Stanford defense turned in one of its most impressive efforts in recent memory, as the No. 10 Cardinal (2-0, 1-0 Pac-12) stomped to a 17-3 win over No. 17 USC (1-1, 0-1).

Saturday night’s performance was the perfect embodiment of Stanford’s bend-but-don’t-break defensive philosophy. The unit gave up 332 yards on the night, but forced three turnovers and limited the Trojans to two red zone trips amounting to a total of three points.

It was an unusually lopsided result in what has become an intense matchup between the California teams over the last ten years. USC’s three points was its fewest in the rivalry game since 1941. 

“It was a physical game. I’ve noticed [the narrative] is the tough guys at Stanford against the athletes at USC. But I think athletically we’re pretty evenly matched,” head coach David Shaw said in his postgame comments.

“The most important things for our defense are playing great on first down, on third down, and in the red zone. And I thought we were pretty good on first down, really good on third down, and great in the red zone. So to keep [USC] out of the end zone and force two field goals and only get one made, that’s a great defense.”

It wasn’t always pretty on the other side of the ball, but running back Bryce Love came alive and the offense capitalized on a few explosive plays to put the game out of reach.

A week after being held to a meager 38 yards against SDSU, Love finished with his night with 136 yards on 22 carries and his first touchdown of the season. A large chunk came on a 59-yard scamper off an outside pitch early in the third quarter that ultimately resulted in a Cardinal field goal.

Stanford started hot on offense, opening the game with an eight-play, 83-yard drive that culminated in a Love touchdown run from six yards out.

From there, the offense stalled out for much of the night. The unit hurt itself many times over with five penalties on first down, leading to consistently long-yardage third downs. Stanford only converted four times on 13 attempts.

The offensive line gave up zero sacks but continued to work out wrinkles and deal with injuries. Starting center Jesse Burkett was held out for the second consecutive game, with Drew Dalman starting in his place. Left guard Foster Sarell, who has split time with Devery Hamilton, was injured early in the second quarter and didn’t return to the game.

With both offenses struggling, it turned into a field positioning battle with a combined 14 punts between the teams. Punter Jake Bailey — who has become an invaluable weapon on special teams for the Cardinal — booted three punts longer than 50 yards, including a career-high 66-yarder.

Costello was a respectable 16-for-27 for 183 yards and a touchdown, with several pretty completions to tight end Kaden Smith, who finished with four catches for 77 yards.

But while the offense threw the occasional hook, the defense delivered the unrelenting body punches that wore the Trojans thin.

The pass rush wreaked havoc and played more consistently than last week, earning four sacks to its name.

The biggest came with a little under a minute and a half to play in the first half, as the Trojans lined up to go for it on 4th and 2 down 7-0 at the Stanford 40. Outside linebacker Joey Alfieri made a move inside unblocked and stripped USC quarterback JT Daniels of the ball, and Bobby Okereke fell on top of it to give the Cardinal possession near the midfield marker.

From there, Costello marched Stanford down the field in five plays and connected with tight end Colby Parkinson on a perfectly thrown and caught fade to make the score 14-0 going into halftime.

The secondary was stellar most of the night and made true freshman Daniels — who joined USC after leaving high school early — look like he still belonged there.

Stanford held Daniels 144 yards on a paltry 45% completion rate until the final five minutes of the game. The Trojans finally managed to put together a cohesive drive and made their way into the end zone down 14 with just over two minutes left to play. But safety Malik Antoine picked off an under-thrown pass in the end zone from Daniels to end any hope of a comeback bid for USC.

It was a triumphant return for Antoine, who was playing his own season opener after missing last week with an injury. The redshirt sophomore added a second interception in the waning moments of the game.

Antoine switched from the cornerback position to safety this offseason, a decision that is paying immediate dividends.

“I think it was a great move for me. I get to communicate more and see the game more,” he said. “It’s all thanks to my coaching staff for putting me back there and letting me make plays.”

Fifth-year senior cornerback Alijah Holder also saw his return to the field nearly 11 months after suffering a gruesome leg injury early last season. Holder and redshirt freshman Paulson Adebo blanketed USC’s talented wideouts for most of the night and look to be a menacing tandem going forward.

In all, the Stanford defense finished with 11 pass breakups and perhaps most impressively, zero penalties. 

Next up, Stanford plays host to non-conference opponent UC Davis on Saturday before returning to Pac-12 play. Kickoff is set for a frighteningly early 11 am start next Saturday. The game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.

 

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

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Arcega-Whiteside, Stanford race past SDSU in season opener https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/01/arcega-whiteside-stanford-race-past-sdsu-in-season-opener/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/01/arcega-whiteside-stanford-race-past-sdsu-in-season-opener/#respond Sat, 01 Sep 2018 09:48:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1143543 No. 13 Stanford (1-0) rode the shoulders of an explosive offensive playmaker, who posted 200-plus yards and entered his name into the early-season Heisman discussion, en route to win over SDSU (0-1) on Friday night.

It was a familiar script for the Cardinal, except for the fact that it wasn’t Bryce Love’s name at the top of the stat sheet. Instead, it was wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside who had a career night as No. 13 Stanford shook off early woes on both sides of the ball, easing to a 31-10 victory.

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Stanford rode the shoulders of an explosive offensive playmaker, who posted 200-plus yards and entered his name into the early-season Heisman discussion, en route to a win over San Diego State University (SDSU) on Friday night.

It was a familiar script for the Cardinal, except for the fact that it wasn’t Bryce Love’s name at the top of the stat sheet. Instead, it was wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside who had a career night as 13th-ranked Stanford (1-0) shook off early woes on both sides of the ball, easing to a 31-10 victory.

The senior exploded for 226 yards — good for third all-time in the Stanford record books — on six catches, along with three touchdowns and a two-point conversion to boot. It was the first time since 1999 that a Cardinal wideout recorded 200-plus yards in a game.

Love, an AP Preseason All-American and Stanford’s best player last season, was shut out by the Aztecs. He struggled to find holes behind the Stanford offensive line and finished with 38 yards on 18 carries.

Love’s quiet night was a clear product of the Aztec game plan, which was to take the ball out of the running back’s hands and force a relatively unproven Stanford passing attack to make plays down the stretch.

Despite the frustrating night, head coach David Shaw was pleased with his star player’s performance.

“Everyone will talk about [Love’s] lack of yardage. He didn’t care. We won the football game. I want to say he missed one [blitz] pickup, the rest were phenomenal,” he said after the game.

The Stanford offense finished with 50 rushing yards and 332 passing yards, an uncharacteristic stat line for a team that prides itself on playing run-first, smashmouth football.

Part of the problem for Stanford was that the offensive line is still in the process of figuring itself out. Starting center Jesse Burkett was sidelined with an injury, as redshirt freshman Drew Dalman started in his place. Coaches were also still evaluating a position battle at left guard, where both Foster Sarell and Devery Hamilton saw playing time.

Shaw, however, mostly credited the Aztecs (0-1) for forcing the Cardinal to play outside of their identity by shutting down the run and daring them to pass the ball.

“That might be the most blitzes we’ve seen in one game during my 12 years [here],” said Shaw.

The Aztecs telegraphed their intent from the get-go. On the very first play of the game, they stacked the box and forced an unprepared Stanford to burn a timeout. A decent first drive sputtered out for the Cardinal when Jet Toner failed to connect on a 38-yard field goal try.

SDSU dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball early on, and looked the better team for large stretches of the first half. On their second possession, the Aztecs found the endzone after consecutive runs of 22, 10 and 40 yards from running back Juwan Washington.

The SDSU offensive line, returning all five starters from last season, bullied the Cardinal’s fairly inexperienced front-three rotation in the first half, as Washington rushed for 114 yards going into the break.

The Stanford offense was anemic until the waning moments of the first half, when junior quarterback K.J. Costello connected with Arcega-Whiteside on a 38-yard touchdown with 27 seconds remaining, igniting a spark that would grow into a full-on wildfire in the second half.

Stanford’s unsung hero was wideout Trenton Irwin, who made perhaps the best, and definitively the most bizarre play of the game to set up the score. With under 2 minutes remaining in the half, a Costello pass attempt was tipped and intercepted by by Aztec lineman Noble Hall. As Hall began taking it the other way, Irwin flew back on defense to strip him and recover the football. When the dust settled, the play resulted in a net loss of 13 yards for the Cardinal instead of a turnover.

Two plays later, Costello found Arcega-Whiteside deep to take a 9-7 lead into the half.

Before that though, the Cardinal did manage to get on the scoreboard with some help from its defense and special teams. Early in the second quarter, Stanford punter Jake Bailey rocketed a 63-yard punt, pinning SDSU at their own one-yard line. Three plays later, linebacker Bobby Okereke put a vicious body-slam on Aztec quarterback Christian Chapman in the endzone to force a safety.

It was one of five sacks on the night for Stanford. The defensive line, though inconsistent at times, was shored up by a stout Cardinal secondary, which limited the Aztecs to 113 yards in the air. Cornerbacks Alameen Murphy and Paulson Adebo started in place of the injured Alijah Holder and Malik Antoine.

Adebo — playing in his first career game — was particularly impressive. The redshirt freshman recorded 5.5 tackles and two pass breakups, including one he nearly picked off with nothing but daylight in front of him going the other way.

The defense found its groove after the early SDSU touchdown drive, holding the Aztecs to just 263 yards of total offense. Shaw was complimentary of defensive coordinator Lance Anderson for getting his group ready for the demands of a season opener, especially against a physical SDSU team. “[He’s] the most underrated defensive coordinator in America,” said Shaw.

In the second half, the Cardinal offense poured it on through the air as Arcega-Whiteside hauled in touchdowns on the team’s first two drives, the second coming on an 80-yard strike.

Arcega-Whiteside was simply too big and strong for the Aztec cornerbacks, who were tossed on an island across from No. 19, with no safety help over the top, for most of the game.

SDSU only began double-teaming him near the end of the third quarter, but by then, it was too late.

Tight end Colby Parkinson would score a touchdown of his own, reeling in a 19-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Costello would finish 21-for-31 for 332 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. It was an on-and-off night for the junior, with more than his fair share of errant throws. Costello got plenty of help from Arcega-Whiteside though, who seemed to catch anything and everything thrown remotely in his direction.

The wideout’s breakout night vaults his name into the way-too-early Heisman conversation, alongside Love, who will need to do more statistically going forward to stay relevant in the national conversation.

SDSU’s sell-out-on-the-run defensive approach, and its relative lack of success, highlight a scary fact about the dynamism of the Cardinal offense. Try to stop the inside threat of Bryce Love by stuffing the box, and they have the ability to cause serious damage outside and over the top through the air.

Last year, the Stanford passing game was far from fearsome, averaging a little over 186 yards per game. But this season, Costello should have greater comfort in the pocket, and the Cardinal return an experienced receiving corps stocked with massive targets. Arcega-Whiteside, Irwin, Parkinson and Kaden Smith all figure to make an impact on the field and have future draft-pick potential.

In Arcega-Whiteside’s mind, the Cardinal’s plethora of offensive weapons means there is no optimal way to defend them.

“Bryce Love is one of the most talented running backs in the country. Of course you need extra support [for him], and that just frees up everything on the outside.

“If teams want to stack the box, we’ll take the one-on-one matchups, and if they want to play zone we’ll block for No. 20. He’ll take it to the house,” he said.

On Friday night, Stanford managed to find its passing game, more or less giving up on their run-first approach in the second half. But if the Cardinal can get both phases of the offense clicking at the same time, they look capable of wreaking serious havoc.

Next up for the Cardinal is a big-time matchup with No. 15 USC next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 5:30 pm, and the game will be broadcast live on Fox.

 

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

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Student parents say Stanford can do more for them https://stanforddaily.com/2017/09/26/student-parents-say-stanford-can-do-more-for-them/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/09/26/student-parents-say-stanford-can-do-more-for-them/#respond Tue, 26 Sep 2017 08:20:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129972 Some graduate students with children who spoke to The Daily said that they feel they are being overlooked and that the University could do more to meet their needs.

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In 2013, after nearly two years of field research in Southern California, graduate student Forest Peterson M.S. ’07 couldn’t wait to get home to Stanford.

Peterson, a married father of three and current Ph.D. in civil engineering, had visited his family so infrequently that his young children had forgotten who he was, and his pregnant wife had begun to resent him for being away.

But according to Peterson, his return to campus did not go smoothly, as he’d anticipated. Within a month of being back at Stanford, he received an email notifying him that he would be unable to renew his housing after six years — a time limit he said he’d overlooked, misunderstanding Stanford’s policies. A single student would have stopped the clock on his housing contract while away, but Peterson, loathe to uproot his family, had continued using the one year of University housing and five years of housing lottery priority that Stanford guarantees to its Ph.D. students.

Now, Peterson would need to house a family of five in Silicon Valley on a student’s budget. “I call it being evicted,” he said.

Peterson believes his experience with housing — and what he criticizes as the University’s lack of flexibility for his particular circumstances as a student-parent — is part of a bigger problem at Stanford, where the Bay Area’s high costs of living put particular strain on families’ budgets. Graduate students with children who spoke to The Daily said that they feel they are being overlooked and that the University could do more to meet their needs.

In 2016, Peterson and a group of parents with similar concerns formed the Student Parent Alliance (SPA), an advocacy group that aims to improve Stanford’s resources and accommodations for this special subset of the community. The SPA now has several hundred members, including faculty and administrators.

University officials say that Stanford is dedicated to collaborating with the parents to address their concerns. This year, the University formed the Student Family Working Advisory Group (SF-WAG), a specialized task group that has begun working with the SPA on issues such as access to housing, lactation spaces and child care, among several others.

Some students questioned if the University is doing enough.

“Being a parent is part of our identity, in addition to racial, ethnic, cultural and class backgrounds that we come in with,” said Tina Cheuk M.A. ’07, a Ph.D. student who helped Peterson create the SPA. “It is part of who we are, and there are things the University could do better in being a leader and supporting the diversity of the student population.”

Student parents say Stanford can do more for them
Graduate student Forest Peterson with two of his children (AVERY KRIEGER/The Stanford Daily).

Housing challenges

Stanford’s graduate housing shortage and an expensive Silicon Valley housing market pose challenges for many students, not just those with children. But difficulties in finding housing may fall especially hard on families, student-parents said.

Even for student-parents who do not pursue field research, completing degrees within the time period allotted for housing can be an immense challenge, Peterson said, citing the extra demands of attending school while raising a child. While the University grants Masters students with children an extra year of housing priority, it does not make the same provisions for students pursuing Ph.D.s.

“These limitations are necessary to manage much greater demand for university housing than we are able to accommodate,” said Jocelyn Breeland, a spokesperson for Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE). “Although we are aware there may be students – with or without children – who take longer to complete their studies, these priorities are intended to meet the needs of most students.”

Students who lose priority can still enter a housing lottery. According to Breeland, changes to the priority system that began in part last year and kicked in fully this year allowed all students with children who requested on-campus housing — even those without priority years left — to receive it in the housing lottery for 2017-18. R&DE accommodated those who wanted off-campus assignments too, Breeland said.

Stanford has housing designed specifically for families in northern Escondido Village, and gives families preference for two-bedrooms in Escondido South, according to Breeland.

The housing lottery hasn’t always been able to accommodate all student-parent applicants. Last school year, 13 student-parents who applied for on-campus or subsidized off-campus housing were unassigned in the initial lottery, including the seven who applied without priority or a special medical need.

However, those student-parents’ predicament was part of a broader housing crunch affecting all kinds of graduate students, one the University hopes to combat with an Escondido Village construction project expected to add 2,000 beds in 2020. Parents made up just a small portion of the 724 total or 11 percent of students who sought housing but were unassigned that round.

Peterson said he did not receive housing when he entered the lottery in 2013 and again the next year. In 2013-14, between 21 and 36 student parents were on a housing wait-list each quarter; about a third got off the list.

For Peterson, losing his campus housing meant moving five times in the following years, as a lack of stable income made it hard to secure a long-term living arrangement.

“How do you get a lease without a job? Nobody will give you one,” he said. “You have to have a down payment and first month’s rent… Plus I didn’t have any credit because I didn’t have a job.”

Breeland noted that Stanford provides support to students who choose not to live in or aren’t able to get University housing. R&DE compiles off-campus housing listings and other resources, and Housing Assignments staff can advise students one-on-one. The Financial Aid Office awards some graduate students loans of up to $6,000 throughout their Stanford career to help with move-in costs such as a first payment on an apartment.

The Bay Area, however, remains expensive. This year, the Mercury News reported that the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Palo Alto was $3,600 per month, with down payments typically requiring at least an additional month’s worth of rent.

Benjamin Shank Ph.D. ’14, a former graduate student in the physics department whose housing contract also expired, said he was unable to find living arrangements in the Bay Area and sent his family across the country to live with his in-laws in 2012. Shank spent his final year at the University subletting Stanford housing from other graduate students and living in his office.

“I had stashed some clothes in an unused corner of an adjacent lab, and the office had a full-sized couch and a mini-fridge,” Shank said. “There was a shower [in the building], so the only real issues were laundry and loneliness.”

However, Shank would not wish his experience on another family.

“I got a lot out of [my] program at Stanford, but I have had to honestly advise students who are about to get married that they should probably look elsewhere,” he said. “Had I been single, I could have easily handled a loss of housing. Right now, Palo Alto and Stanford are not places I could send a young family without strong financial resources in good conscience.”

With the help of a supportive advisor and coworkers, Shank was able to finish his degree and “leave as soon as possible,” he said.

Student parents say Stanford can do more for them
Graduate student Tina Cheuk with her daughter (Courtesy of Tina Cheuk).

Obstacles for mothers

While any student-parent can eventually lose housing, SPA leaders noted extra burdens of pursuing a degree as a mother that they see as emblematic of broader institutional barriers women may face in keeping up with their male counterparts in academia.

They pinpointed two examples of resources that Stanford can expand to help mothers: maternity leave and lactation space.

The University’s maternity leave policy grants graduate students from teaching assistant or research assistant duties after giving birth. Because fathers and other partners are excluded from the program, the SPA argues, mothers have to make a tough choice: Either take the six weeks and fall behind male colleagues or pass on the leave in order to remain competitive, a decision that student mothers said can have harmful effects on the early stages of a newborn child’s development.

One of the SPA’s initiatives, listed on the group’s website, is to expand maternity leave to a general parental leave, thereby leveling the playing field and providing families with more flexibility in deciding how to raise their child.

Some student mothers said that childbirth is only the first in a series of challenges they face as they work toward degrees.

Cheuk, a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Education (GSE), said she struggled to find a good place to pump her breast milk when she arrived at Stanford in 2014 as the mother of a newborn.

Needing to pump milk throughout the day to feed her child when she got home, Cheuk inquired about lactation spaces on campus. She said she expected to find designated spaces in her building for women with the same predicament but was instead directed to bathrooms, cubicles and conference rooms. When she voiced concerns about privacy, she said, people higher up in the GSE told her to hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign and prop a chair against the door to prevent people from entering.

The GSE did have one designated lactation space in Cubberley, the education building, Cheuk said. But the distance made it less accessible for Cheuk and other members of her school who spend their time primarily at the Center for Education Research at Stanford. According to Cheuk, the space was also located in an old, dusty basement (“I was surprised there weren’t rat droppings,” she said, half-jokingly).

“I’m supposed to focus on my research — that’s why I’m here,” Cheuk said. “But I can’t focus on that if I’m trying to figure out how to feed my baby.”

The experience prompted Cheuk to launch what became a two-year effort to improve the quality of lactation spaces in her department, during which she contacted 18 university administrators through email and in-person meetings, she said.

Cheuk said she was met with sympathy but made little progress in her goals until 2016, when the University agreed to work with Cheuk to design two new “Wellness Rooms” in her department. Still, she said she and her colleagues have found it difficult to ensure that these rooms are used for their intended purpose. Cheuk has often seen the rooms used by male coworkers as a quiet space to take calls or naps.

“Mothers who needed to use the space had to ask people to leave,” she said. “There’s a power and status dynamic that is a barrier, period.”

Student parents say Stanford can do more for them
(Courtesy of Tina Cheuk)

An April email from Graduate School of Education staff reminded GSE members that the school’s Wellness Rooms are meant for nursing mothers, those feeling ill and people briefly meditating — not for lunch breaks, conference calls and sleeping.

According to Priscilla Fiden, associate dean for administration at the GSE, the Wellness Rooms now have signs notifying users that lactating mothers have first priority in all cases. In a survey sent to GSE students last year, 11 mothers reported using the space to lactate regularly.

Still, Cheuk feels that the Wellness Rooms are not fully suitable lactation spaces, citing sanitary concerns over pumping breast milk in rooms shared with people that might be sick. She said her frustration over lactation options over the last few years has raised doubts in her mind about her intended career path in academia.

“All these issues add up, and as women we have to work that much harder in these systems to be successful,” Cheuk said.

Lisa Hummel, a graduate student in sociology and fellow SPA member, voiced similar concerns, arguing that gender imbalances in industries such as tech and academia are often rooted in the institutional barriers new mothers face at universities. Hummel does not have children but said she supports SPA’s initiatives because she realizes the policies it advocates may play a role in her life in the future.

“I’m 30 and I’ll be in [my] program for five to seven years, so if I want to have a family it will likely be during this time,” Hummel said. “These things will impact me.”

Currently, Stanford lists 26 designated lactation spaces on its website, and states that “[a]ny space that is private and is not located in a bathroom can be considered for lactation space use” with permission.

According to University spokesperson Ernest Miranda, the University’s Human Resources department has begun drafting a new policy on accommodating lactation and is partnering with campus organizations such as the SPA to ensure a “culture of support for breastfeeding” for the entire Stanford community. The University’s Title IX office also serves as a resource for students with concerns over lactation support, Miranda said.

Cheuk no longer needs lactation spaces, but said she is glad her two-year campaign will benefit future students.
However, what she describes as the University’s inertia in responding to her complaint has left her feeling — like other members of the SPA — that the University can afford to ignore issues they raise and continue to attract top-tier talent.

“Unless they start losing graduate students to other top institutions, it’s not really their problem,” Hummel said.

Student parents say Stanford can do more for them
Forest Peterson fountain-hops with his children (AVERY KRIEGER/The Stanford Daily).

Student parents say Stanford can do more for themChild care access

Access to affordable child care remains a worry for some student parents in addition to housing and lactation space.

Last year, the University announced its decision to close Rainbow School and Pepper Tree After School Program, two of the eight child care centers on campus. The programs were the only two at Stanford that granted student-parents the highest priority in enrollment as well as reduced tuition —  regardless of income — for residents of Escondido Village, where graduate students are concentrated.

The University closed Rainbow and Pepper Tree in order to expand another child care center on campus. Stanford will grant the land opened by the demolition of the schools to Children’s Center of the Stanford Community (CCSC), an independent non-profit program that will grow its enrollment from 144 to 255 children.

Stanford is also partnering with the Palo Alto Unified School District to increase the capacity of Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC), an after-school program which operates one of its child care facilities at Escondido Elementary School.

“In regards to the closures of Rainbow and Pepper Tree, we greatly appreciate the love that exists for these programs, and the decision to close them was not undertaken lightly,” University spokesperson Lisa Lapin said in a statement to The Daily.

“We made the decision to maximize the expansion opportunity for CCSC because not only does this bring infant and toddler care into the [Escondido Village] neighborhood, but it also allows us to grow a program that has consistently high demand,” Lapin said.

Phyllis Pires, senior director of WorkLife Strategy at Stanford, told The Daily previously that graduate students at centers besides Pepper Tree and Rainbow, where students got top preference, receive priority for child care after faculty. For the first year after Pepper Tree and Rainbow’s closures, families are getting either priority to move to PACC or  “additional priority at all of our child care programs to ensure their children can have a continuity of care,” Lapin said.

Still, SPA member Hummel, a former child care research specialist at WorkLife, was critical.

“It’s not a long-standing commitment by the University to give graduate students with children priority enrollment,” she said, discussing the University’s promise of extra priority for next year. “It’s just [for] the students currently being affected by the change.”

An email obtained by The Daily from a PACCC administrator stated that the center will not give priority to graduate students beyond children entering the program this year and their siblings in future years.

Graduate students get discounts on Stanford’s child care programs based on their income. According to Lapin, about half of the school’s graduate student families currently benefit from tuition reductions of several hundred dollars each month. Only University faculty and staff are eligible for up to $5,000-per-year grants through the Child Care Subsidy Grant Program (CCSG).

Without reduced tuition, the cost of child care at a center like CCSC can become prohibitive for some graduate students. During the 2016-2017 school year, the center charged between $1,850 and $2,445 per month for full-time care, depending on the age of the child.

“The tuition at the Stanford child care programs on campus is benchmarked against market rate for high-quality child care,” Lapin said. “We recognize the degree to which this expense is challenging for many families in the Bay Area.”

Ericka Weathers, a student in the Graduate School of Education, said her family feels the strain of paying the full cost of tuition for her two children at Stanford Madera Grove Children’s Center. Because her husband has a job, her family falls above the income cutoff for tuition reductions, she said.

Weather argued that basing child care subsidies on yearly income does not account for the fact that “people come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.”

“My husband has student loans [from undergraduate school] and took out more loans [at Stanford],” she said. “When you start to think about the different expenses that families with different backgrounds come to Stanford with, the fact that they have these income requirements to receive support for child care isn’t an adequate representation of the needs of students with families.”

Student parents say Stanford can do more for them
(AVERY KRIEGER/The Stanford Daily)

Working with the University

The SPA’s formation prompted the University this year to assemble SF-WAG, the task group that will work with the organization to address its concerns. Led by Pires from WorkLife Strategy and Ken Hsu, assistant vice provost and director of the Graduate Life Office, SF-WAG met with the SPA in April for the first time.

“Stanford is committed to supporting students with children and dependents, recognizing that these students have unique challenges, particularly in Silicon Valley, where housing, health care and child care costs have increased markedly,” Hsu and Pires said in a statement to The Daily.

“During [the meeting in April], the participants all agreed that the way to move forward most swiftly — to identify actionable items and to prioritize them — is to establish a collaborative working group whose membership represents the key university offices that share resources and responsibilities for students with children and dependents, including lactation accommodations, child care, information and resources for students who are parents, financial aid, and health care,” Hsu and Pires said.

SF-WAG intends to present a “special report and set of recommendations” to Patricia Gumport M.A. ’82 ’86 Ph.D. ’87, the vice provost for graduate education, during winter quarter of the coming school year.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Cheuk said of SPA’s newfound collaboration with the University task group. “I have to give Stanford an opportunity to try to address these issues, but at what point does their lack of action warrant more action on our part?”

In Cheuk’s view, more transparent data on student-parents at Stanford could help the University address concerns. Currently, neither the SPA nor the University have a precise number for students at Stanford with children, making it difficult to allocate appropriate resources to a population of unknown size. SF-WAG calls “strategies for accessing and collecting student family data” one of its immediate priorities.

Gathering parental status poses particular challenges. Unlike other demographics such gender and ethnicity, which tend to be static variables, parental status can change at any point during a student’s time in college.

Furthermore, Cheuk said, student-parents may not be forthcoming about having children out of worry for how peers perceive them.

“I’ve found that people don’t always want to share that they are a parent, because they want to lead with the fact that they are a researcher and a scholar,” Cheuk said. “There are still biases in education. If you’re a parent, there are assumptions that you will leave [work] earlier, and that you won’t work as hard because you have a family at home.”

Despite the obstacles in collecting such data, Cheuk believes University should do more to obtain it. The SPA has lobbied to include marital and parental status as optional demographics on Axess, Stanford’s web portal for everything from grades to tuition billing. Currently, Axess requires students to input their ethnicity and, optionally, state their religious community affiliation as part of a yearly “Student Check-In.”

“If you don’t count us and the data isn’t tracked, nothing will be done,” Cheuk said.

For parents like Cheuk, organizing meetings — she and Peterson report attending over 60 between the two of them since 2014 — in addition to pursuing their degrees and taking care of their children is worthwhile if it creates change for future parents like Hummel.

Cheuk envisions eventually funding a graduate student family center to serve as a comprehensive resource for student-parents. Other universities such as the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley have similar centers. Cheuk likely won’t see this plan executed during her time at Stanford, but she has begun drafting a long-term proposal for its implementation.

“Stanford is training us to be future leaders, and as such we will take the policies and practices we learn here to wherever we go,” Cheuk said. “How can Stanford be a leader and be really transformative and push issues to teach us to do the same things as future leaders in other institutions?”

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

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated CCSC’s tuition rate, describing it as weekly rather than monthly. The child care center charged between $1,850 and $2,445 per month for its most extensive care the last academic year. The Daily regrets this error. 

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Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help them https://stanforddaily.com/2017/09/22/magazine-cardinal-with-kids-student-parents-say-stanford-can-do-more-to-help-them/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/09/22/magazine-cardinal-with-kids-student-parents-say-stanford-can-do-more-to-help-them/#respond Fri, 22 Sep 2017 20:26:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1133017 In 2013, after nearly two years of field research in Southern California, graduate student Forest Peterson M.S. ’07 couldn’t wait to get home to Stanford. Peterson, a married father of three and current Ph.D. in civil engineering, had visited his family so infrequently that his young children had forgotten who he was, and his pregnant […]

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In 2013, after nearly two years of field research in Southern California, graduate student Forest Peterson M.S. ’07 couldn’t wait to get home to Stanford.

Peterson, a married father of three and current Ph.D. in civil engineering, had visited his family so infrequently that his young children had forgotten who he was, and his pregnant wife had begun to resent him for being away.

But according to Peterson, his return to campus did not go smoothly, as he’d anticipated. Within a month of being back at Stanford, he received an email notifying him that he would be unable to renew his housing after six years — a time limit he said he’d overlooked, misunderstanding Stanford’s policies. A single student would have stopped the clock on his housing contract while away, but Peterson, loathe to uproot his family, had continued using the one year of University housing and five years of housing lottery priority that Stanford guarantees to its Ph.D. students.

Now, Peterson would need to house a family of five in Silicon Valley on a student’s budget. “I call it being evicted,” he said.

Peterson believes his experience with housing — and what he criticizes as the University’s lack of flexibility for his particular circumstances as a student-parent — is part of a bigger problem at Stanford, where the Bay Area’s high costs of living put particular strain on families’ budgets. Graduate students with children who spoke to The Daily said that they feel they are being overlooked and that the University could do more to meet their needs.

In 2016, Peterson and a group of parents with similar concerns formed the Student Parent Alliance (SPA), an advocacy group that aims to improve Stanford’s resources and accommodations for this special subset of the community. The SPA now has several hundred members, including faculty and administrators.

University officials say that Stanford is dedicated to collaborating with the parents to address their concerns. This year, the University formed the Student Family Working Advisory Group (SF-WAG), a specialized task group that has begun working with the SPA on issues such as access to housing, lactation spaces and child care, among several others.

Some students questioned if the University is doing enough.

“Being a parent is part of our identity, in addition to racial, ethnic, cultural and class backgrounds that we come in with,” said Tina Cheuk M.A. ’07, a Ph.D. student who helped Peterson create the SPA. “It is part of who we are, and there are things the University could do better in being a leader and supporting the diversity of the student population.”

Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help them
Graduate student Forest Peterson with two of his children (AVERY KRIEGER/The Stanford Daily).

Housing challenges

Stanford’s graduate housing shortage and an expensive Silicon Valley housing market pose challenges for many students, not just those with children. But difficulties in finding housing may fall especially hard on families, student-parents said.

Even for student-parents who do not pursue field research, completing degrees within the time period allotted for housing can be an immense challenge, Peterson said, citing the extra demands of attending school while raising a child. While the University grants Masters students with children an extra year of housing priority, it does not make the same provisions for students pursuing Ph.D.s.

“These limitations are necessary to manage much greater demand for university housing than we are able to accommodate,” said Jocelyn Breeland, a spokesperson for Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE). “Although we are aware there may be students – with or without children – who take longer to complete their studies, these priorities are intended to meet the needs of most students.”

Students who lose priority can still enter a housing lottery. According to Breeland, changes to the priority system that began in part last year and kicked in fully this year allowed all students with children who requested on-campus housing — even those without priority years left — to receive it in the housing lottery for 2017-18. R&DE accommodated those who wanted off-campus assignments too, Breeland said.

Stanford has housing designed specifically for families in northern Escondido Village, and gives families preference for two-bedrooms in Escondido South, according to Breeland.

The housing lottery hasn’t always been able to accommodate all student-parent applicants. Last school year, 13 student-parents who applied for on-campus or subsidized off-campus housing were unassigned in the initial lottery, including the seven who applied without priority or a special medical need.

However, those student-parents’ predicament was part of a broader housing crunch affecting all kinds of graduate students, one the University hopes to combat with an Escondido Village construction project expected to add 2,000 beds in 2020. Parents made up just a small portion of the 724 total or 11 percent of students who sought housing but were unassigned that round.

Peterson said he did not receive housing when he entered the lottery in 2013 and again the next year. In 2013-14, between 21 and 36 student parents were on a housing wait-list each quarter; about a third got off the list.

For Peterson, losing his campus housing meant moving five times in the following years, as a lack of stable income made it hard to secure a long-term living arrangement.

“How do you get a lease without a job? Nobody will give you one,” he said. “You have to have a down payment and first month’s rent… Plus I didn’t have any credit because I didn’t have a job.”

Breeland noted that Stanford provides support to students who choose not to live in or aren’t able to get University housing. R&DE compiles off-campus housing listings and other resources, and Housing Assignments staff can advise students one-on-one. The Financial Aid Office awards some graduate students loans of up to $6,000 throughout their Stanford career to help with move-in costs such as a first payment on an apartment.

The Bay Area, however, remains expensive. This year, the Mercury News reported that the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Palo Alto was $3,600 per month, with down payments typically requiring at least an additional month’s worth of rent.

Benjamin Shank Ph.D. ’14, a former graduate student in the physics department whose housing contract also expired, said he was unable to find living arrangements in the Bay Area and sent his family across the country to live with his in-laws in 2012. Shank spent his final year at the University subletting Stanford housing from other graduate students and living in his office.

“I had stashed some clothes in an unused corner of an adjacent lab, and the office had a full-sized couch and a mini-fridge,” Shank said. “There was a shower [in the building], so the only real issues were laundry and loneliness.”

However, Shank would not wish his experience on another family.

“I got a lot out of [my] program at Stanford, but I have had to honestly advise students who are about to get married that they should probably look elsewhere,” he said. “Had I been single, I could have easily handled a loss of housing. Right now, Palo Alto and Stanford are not places I could send a young family without strong financial resources in good conscience.”

With the help of a supportive advisor and coworkers, Shank was able to finish his degree and “leave as soon as possible,” he said.

Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help them
Graduate student Tina Cheuk with her daughter (Courtesy of Tina Cheuk).

Obstacles for mothers

While any student-parent can eventually lose housing, SPA leaders noted extra burdens of pursuing a degree as a mother that they see as emblematic of broader institutional barriers women may face in keeping up with their male counterparts in academia.

They pinpointed two examples of resources that Stanford can expand to help mothers: maternity leave and lactation space.

The University’s maternity leave policy grants graduate students from teaching assistant or research assistant duties after giving birth. Because fathers and other partners are excluded from the program, the SPA argues, mothers have to make a tough choice: Either take the six weeks and fall behind male colleagues or pass on the leave in order to remain competitive, a decision that student mothers said can have harmful effects on the early stages of a newborn child’s development.

One of the SPA’s initiatives, listed on the group’s website, is to expand maternity leave to a general parental leave, thereby leveling the playing field and providing families with more flexibility in deciding how to raise their child.

Some student mothers said that childbirth is only the first in a series of challenges they face as they work toward degrees.

Cheuk, a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Education (GSE), said she struggled to find a good place to pump her breast milk when she arrived at Stanford in 2014 as the mother of a newborn.

Needing to pump milk throughout the day to feed her child when she got home, Cheuk inquired about lactation spaces on campus. She said she expected to find designated spaces in her building for women with the same predicament but was instead directed to bathrooms, cubicles and conference rooms. When she voiced concerns about privacy, she said, people higher up in the GSE told her to hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign and prop a chair against the door to prevent people from entering.

The GSE did have one designated lactation space in Cubberley, the education building, Cheuk said. But the distance made it less accessible for Cheuk and other members of her school who spend their time primarily at the Center for Education Research at Stanford. According to Cheuk, the space was also located in an old, dusty basement (“I was surprised there weren’t rat droppings,” she said, half-jokingly).

“I’m supposed to focus on my research — that’s why I’m here,” Cheuk said. “But I can’t focus on that if I’m trying to figure out how to feed my baby.”

The experience prompted Cheuk to launch what became a two-year effort to improve the quality of lactation spaces in her department, during which she contacted 18 university administrators through email and in-person meetings, she said.

Cheuk said she was met with sympathy but made little progress in her goals until 2016, when the University agreed to work with Cheuk to design two new “Wellness Rooms” in her department. Still, she said she and her colleagues have found it difficult to ensure that these rooms are used for their intended purpose. Cheuk has often seen the rooms used by male coworkers as a quiet space to take calls or naps.

“Mothers who needed to use the space had to ask people to leave,” she said. “There’s a power and status dynamic that is a barrier, period.”

Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help them
(Courtesy of Tina Cheuk)

An April email from Graduate School of Education staff reminded GSE members that the school’s Wellness Rooms are meant for nursing mothers, those feeling ill and people briefly meditating — not for lunch breaks, conference calls and sleeping.

According to Priscilla Fiden, associate dean for administration at the GSE, the Wellness Rooms now have signs notifying users that lactating mothers have first priority in all cases. In a survey sent to GSE students last year, 11 mothers reported using the space to lactate regularly.

Still, Cheuk feels that the Wellness Rooms are not fully suitable lactation spaces, citing sanitary concerns over pumping breast milk in rooms shared with people that might be sick. She said her frustration over lactation options over the last few years has raised doubts in her mind about her intended career path in academia.

“All these issues add up, and as women we have to work that much harder in these systems to be successful,” Cheuk said.

Lisa Hummel, a graduate student in sociology and fellow SPA member, voiced similar concerns, arguing that gender imbalances in industries such as tech and academia are often rooted in the institutional barriers new mothers face at universities. Hummel does not have children but said she supports SPA’s initiatives because she realizes the policies it advocates may play a role in her life in the future.

“I’m 30 and I’ll be in [my] program for five to seven years, so if I want to have a family it will likely be during this time,” Hummel said. “These things will impact me.”

Currently, Stanford lists 26 designated lactation spaces on its website, and states that “[a]ny space that is private and is not located in a bathroom can be considered for lactation space use” with permission.

According to University spokesperson Ernest Miranda, the University’s Human Resources department has begun drafting a new policy on accommodating lactation and is partnering with campus organizations such as the SPA to ensure a “culture of support for breastfeeding” for the entire Stanford community. The University’s Title IX office also serves as a resource for students with concerns over lactation support, Miranda said.

Cheuk no longer needs lactation spaces, but said she is glad her two-year campaign will benefit future students.
However, what she describes as the University’s inertia in responding to her complaint has left her feeling — like other members of the SPA — that the University can afford to ignore issues they raise and continue to attract top-tier talent.

“Unless they start losing graduate students to other top institutions, it’s not really their problem,” Hummel said.

Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help them
Forest Peterson fountain-hops with his children (AVERY KRIEGER/The Stanford Daily).

Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help themChild care access

Access to affordable child care remains a worry for some student parents in addition to housing and lactation space.

Last year, the University announced its decision to close Rainbow School and Pepper Tree After School Program, two of the eight child care centers on campus. The programs were the only two at Stanford that granted student-parents the highest priority in enrollment as well as reduced tuition —  regardless of income — for residents of Escondido Village, where graduate students are concentrated.

The University closed Rainbow and Pepper Tree in order to expand another child care center on campus. Stanford will grant the land opened by the demolition of the schools to Children’s Center of the Stanford Community (CCSC), an independent non-profit program that will grow its enrollment from 144 to 255 children.

Stanford is also partnering with the Palo Alto Unified School District to increase the capacity of Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC), an after-school program which operates one of its child care facilities at Escondido Elementary School.

“In regards to the closures of Rainbow and Pepper Tree, we greatly appreciate the love that exists for these programs, and the decision to close them was not undertaken lightly,” University spokesperson Lisa Lapin said in a statement to The Daily.

“We made the decision to maximize the expansion opportunity for CCSC because not only does this bring infant and toddler care into the [Escondido Village] neighborhood, but it also allows us to grow a program that has consistently high demand,” Lapin said.

Phyllis Pires, senior director of WorkLife Strategy at Stanford, told The Daily previously that graduate students at centers besides Pepper Tree and Rainbow, where students got top preference, receive priority for child care after faculty. For the first year after Pepper Tree and Rainbow’s closures, families are getting either priority to move to PACC or  “additional priority at all of our child care programs to ensure their children can have a continuity of care,” Lapin said.

Still, SPA member Hummel, a former child care research specialist at WorkLife, was critical.

“It’s not a long-standing commitment by the University to give graduate students with children priority enrollment,” she said, discussing the University’s promise of extra priority for next year. “It’s just [for] the students currently being affected by the change.”

An email obtained by The Daily from a PACCC administrator stated that the center will not give priority to graduate students beyond children entering the program this year and their siblings in future years.

Graduate students get discounts on Stanford’s child care programs based on their income. According to Lapin, about half of the school’s graduate student families currently benefit from tuition reductions of several hundred dollars each month. Only University faculty and staff are eligible for up to $5,000-per-year grants through the Child Care Subsidy Grant Program (CCSG).

Without reduced tuition, the cost of child care at a center like CCSC can become prohibitive for some graduate students. During the 2016-2017 school year, the center charged between $1,850 and $2,445 per month for full-time care, depending on the age of the child.

“The tuition at the Stanford child care programs on campus is benchmarked against market rate for high-quality child care,” Lapin said. “We recognize the degree to which this expense is challenging for many families in the Bay Area.”

Ericka Weathers, a student in the Graduate School of Education, said her family feels the strain of paying the full cost of tuition for her two children at Stanford Madera Grove Children’s Center. Because her husband has a job, her family falls above the income cutoff for tuition reductions, she said.

Weather argued that basing child care subsidies on yearly income does not account for the fact that “people come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.”

“My husband has student loans [from undergraduate school] and took out more loans [at Stanford],” she said. “When you start to think about the different expenses that families with different backgrounds come to Stanford with, the fact that they have these income requirements to receive support for child care isn’t an adequate representation of the needs of students with families.”

Magazine- Cardinal with Kids: Student parents say Stanford can do more to help them
(AVERY KRIEGER/The Stanford Daily)

Working with the University

The SPA’s formation prompted the University this year to assemble SF-WAG, the task group that will work with the organization to address its concerns. Led by Pires from WorkLife Strategy and Ken Hsu, assistant vice provost and director of the Graduate Life Office, SF-WAG met with the SPA in April for the first time.

“Stanford is committed to supporting students with children and dependents, recognizing that these students have unique challenges, particularly in Silicon Valley, where housing, health care and child care costs have increased markedly,” Hsu and Pires said in a statement to The Daily.

“During [the meeting in April], the participants all agreed that the way to move forward most swiftly — to identify actionable items and to prioritize them — is to establish a collaborative working group whose membership represents the key university offices that share resources and responsibilities for students with children and dependents, including lactation accommodations, child care, information and resources for students who are parents, financial aid, and health care,” Hsu and Pires said.

SF-WAG intends to present a “special report and set of recommendations” to Patricia Gumport M.A. ’82 ’86 Ph.D. ’87, the vice provost for graduate education, during winter quarter of the coming school year.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Cheuk said of SPA’s newfound collaboration with the University task group. “I have to give Stanford an opportunity to try to address these issues, but at what point does their lack of action warrant more action on our part?”

In Cheuk’s view, more transparent data on student-parents at Stanford could help the University address concerns. Currently, neither the SPA nor the University have a precise number for students at Stanford with children, making it difficult to allocate appropriate resources to a population of unknown size. SF-WAG calls “strategies for accessing and collecting student family data” one of its immediate priorities.

Gathering parental status poses particular challenges. Unlike other demographics such gender and ethnicity, which tend to be static variables, parental status can change at any point during a student’s time in college.

Furthermore, Cheuk said, student-parents may not be forthcoming about having children out of worry for how peers perceive them.

“I’ve found that people don’t always want to share that they are a parent, because they want to lead with the fact that they are a researcher and a scholar,” Cheuk said. “There are still biases in education. If you’re a parent, there are assumptions that you will leave [work] earlier, and that you won’t work as hard because you have a family at home.”

Despite the obstacles in collecting such data, Cheuk believes University should do more to obtain it. The SPA has lobbied to include marital and parental status as optional demographics on Axess, Stanford’s web portal for everything from grades to tuition billing. Currently, Axess requires students to input their ethnicity and, optionally, state their religious community affiliation as part of a yearly “Student Check-In.”

“If you don’t count us and the data isn’t tracked, nothing will be done,” Cheuk said.

For parents like Cheuk, organizing meetings — she and Peterson report attending over 60 between the two of them since 2014 — in addition to pursuing their degrees and taking care of their children is worthwhile if it creates change for future parents like Hummel.

Cheuk envisions eventually funding a graduate student family center to serve as a comprehensive resource for student-parents. Other universities such as the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley have similar centers. Cheuk likely won’t see this plan executed during her time at Stanford, but she has begun drafting a long-term proposal for its implementation.

“Stanford is training us to be future leaders, and as such we will take the policies and practices we learn here to wherever we go,” Cheuk said. “How can Stanford be a leader and be really transformative and push issues to teach us to do the same things as future leaders in other institutions?”

 

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

 

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated CCSC’s tuition rate, describing it as weekly rather than monthly. The child care center charged between $1,850 and $2,445 per month for its most extensive care the last academic year. The Daily regrets this error. 

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Senior sit down: Taylor Davidson https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/senior-sit-down-taylor-davidson/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/senior-sit-down-taylor-davidson/#respond Thu, 01 Jun 2017 09:20:39 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128776 In this installment of the “Senior Sit Down” series, the Daily’s Neel Ramachandran caught up with Taylor Davidson of the women’s tennis team. A four-year starter for the Cardinal, Davidson played mostly at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the singles lineup while also garnering All-American honors for her doubles play. Davidson played an integral role in the team’s tournament run last year, eventually clinching the match against Oklahoma State that secured the program’s 18th NCAA Championship.

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In this installment of the “Senior Sit Down” series, the Daily’s Neel Ramachandran caught up with Taylor Davidson of the women’s tennis team. A four-year starter for the Cardinal, Davidson played mostly at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the singles lineup while also garnering All-American honors for her doubles play. Davidson played an integral role in the team’s tournament run last year, clinching the match against Oklahoma State that secured the program’s 18th NCAA Championship.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): You’re very fresh off your senior season — you guys made it to the NCAA final before a tough loss against No. 1 Florida last week. What does it feel like to know you’ve reached the end of your four years on the Farm and played your last collegiate match?

Taylor Davidson (TD): It’s definitely weird to think about, that I’m actually finished. I never imagined this day actually getting here [laughs]. But to finish like that, I don’t think I really expected it. Even during the season which we were having, we were doing really well, but I never actually really thought, “Maybe we can get back to that final and have a chance at winning it again.

TSD: You personally got a lot of love from the Stanford community on social media for your tournament effort, especially after a comeback clincher in the semis against Ohio State. Patrick McEnroe even tweeted at you! Stanford has a history of great tennis players — how does it feel to know that you’ve etched your name in that legacy?

TD: It’s really neat. I don’t rank myself up there in terms of talent with some of the players that have come out of Stanford — I mean, you have people that have finished their collegiate careers here undefeated at the No. 1 spot, which is just incredible. Those people etched their names in a different way. Ever since I was little, my coach always taught me to just have more heart than everyone else. I’m just really happy that that’s how I’ll be remembered, as a fighter, as someone who had heart and fought until I literally couldn’t anymore. I think it’s really special that I even get to be considered on a list with those other people, but if I had the choice, I would be on the list for that reason.

TSD: Let’s backtrack all the way to the beginning. What got you into tennis as a young kid?

TD: I played baseball when I was little because my dad had played. I reached the age where I either had to play softball or quit, because I couldn’t play with the guys anymore. I didn’t really want to play softball, and I was kind of looking for a sport. I was just hitting with my dad one day at the public park, and the man who ended up being coach for 11 years actually came up to me and introduced himself and said that I should come try out his academy. I tried it, and I ended up training with him from age 8 until I got to Stanford.

TSD: You mentioned your dad, who played Major League Baseball and won a World Series. What was his impact on your tennis career?

TD: He knew a lot about tennis, and would hit with me a lot. He’s super athletic so he could beat me until I was 14. He was always there if I needed to talk to someone about mental struggle — obviously he knew a lot about sports on the mental side. Tennis and baseball are somewhat similar mentally and also physically, and when I was having issues with my strokes, I would have him take me to the batting cages and throw me pitches because it helped my swing.

He would joke now that tennis messed up my baseball swing, not the other way around [laughs].

TSD: You’re from North Carolina, which is pretty deep in ACC/SEC territory. There are a lot of good teams in that area, with the likes of UNC, Vanderbilt and Florida. What convinced you to come all the way out here to Stanford?

TD: For the longest time I wanted to stay in the South, and if anyone asked me, I would say I was sure I wanted to stay close to home to be with family. I think I was a day away from committing to Vanderbilt, but on a whim, my coach contacted the Stanford coaches and they were interested. It was actually my dad that said, “You need to consider this a little more seriously,” because I didn’t know too much about the place — it’s not a particularly well-known school where I’m from in the South. He flew me out here to watch the USC match in 2013 and I met the coaches and saw the campus and thought, “Okay, this is the real deal, I need to see if I can get in.” It became something I wouldn’t be comfortable saying no to without exploring more fully.

TSD: You, Carol Zhao and Caroline Doyle are part of a recruiting class that will be remembered pretty fondly at Stanford. Did you guys know each other at all before coming to Stanford? Was there any communication about coming here together and teaming up, or did it kind of just happen?

TD: I had played Caroline in Clay Courts before coming to Stanford, but we didn’t know each other at that point, and I know Carol and Caroline knew each other a little bit. But we all took our official visit at the same time, which was so much fun, and I would recommend it to any other recruiting class, because that’s really where we got to know each other.

After that, we stayed in contact before getting to school in the fall. We were watching Stanford play in the 2013 NCAA final and texting each other, so that official visit was where we really got excited.

TSD: Did you beat Caroline at Clay Courts?

TD: I did not, no. I like to think that clay courts are her strength, and they are definitely not mine [laughs].

TSD: It must have been pretty cool to watch that 2013 team win a championship while you were a high school senior, knowing you would join the team the next year.

TD: It was awesome. It just goes to show what Stanford is about. Every year, regardless of what the ITA seeds us, our team is competing for the championship. Every single year.

TSD: Do you have a favorite pre-match song? What about superstitions on the court?

TD: When I was younger, I would always get really frustrated with myself. My coach taught us that after a point, say whatever you need to say, do whatever you need to do — aside from breaking your racket — and go back to the fence and touch it with your racket, and let all that negative emotion go into the fence so you can turn around and start the next point fresh. I still do it — sometimes it’s the fence, sometimes the towel. Anything that involves stepping away from the baseline and resetting myself helps.

I don’t know if I can pick one song, but we do have a lot that the team jams to. One of the crazier ones that we listened to last year all the time was “Bricks” by Carnage. I remember listening to in the van after we won the championship and just screaming at the top of our lungs. It’s a crazy song — it’s not too PG [laughs].

Senior sit down: Taylor Davidson
(LYNDSAY RADNEDGE/isiphotos.com)

TSD: You’ve often been labeled as a fighter, and for good reason. You’ve repeatedly shown an ability to lock in on big points and just refuse to miss. What do you think gives you that ability?

TD: I think it’s a mix of a lot of things, but the common thing that I’ve found when reflecting after matches on how I came through is the idea that I’m playing to stay on the court for a teammate. To give you a little context, for at least two of the three matches last year that I clinched (during the tournament) and the match against Ohio State this year, I was down and just staying out there to keep the pressure off of my teammates. At Ohio State, [Caroline] Lampl was still playing and I was down 4-1, but I was like, “If you can win a couple games here, the pressure isn’t all on her shoulders, so if she has a little slip-up she’s not freaking out and the match isn’t on the line yet.”

That’s how they all start out, and obviously it can be frustrating if it ends up coming down to me, but at the same time, I’ve been there so many times and when it comes down to it, I just know what I have to do.

TSD: You speak a lot about playing for your team, which is concept that really only exists at the college level. Was the transition from playing on the individual circuit as a junior to college, where the team is everything, difficult? Was there pressure in having to perform for your teammates, or was that something you embraced?

TD: I think I enjoyed that transition greatly. Even in the juniors, there were occasionally team tournaments and I lived for those things. Even though there’s added pressure, the atmosphere is so much more fun. You have more reasons to be out there doing what you’re doing. If you lose a clinching match, it really sucks and it’s hard to get over, but the wins are also magnified. The emotions are all so much better because you have the team there with you.  

TSD: This team has played so many close matches in the past couple years. You barely clinched against Florida last year in the round of 16, Caroline Doyle had a crazy clincher against Michigan in the next round, and then, of course, your comeback in the final. What is it like to be playing in those deciding matches versus watching them from the sidelines and knowing it’s out of your hands?

TD: A lot of us would say that we would rather be playing, but I don’t really know my answer to this because it’s actually really stressful to watch. Then again, playing is another level of pressure and stress. Even though I’ve been able to do fairly well under those situations, I would not say it’s a feeling that I really enjoy [laughs].

In the Ohio State match when it did come down to my match, and I could tell that my body was already about to be done. I was just kind of like, “Why me, again?” It’s not exactly the kind of adrenaline rush you want, but at the same time, being in that situation presents the opportunity to clinch again. As stressful as it is, it’s a situation that once you’ve been in it a couple times, you get more comfortable — if that’s even possible [laughs].

TSD: I want to go back to a couple moments from the title match last year. You’re playing on Court 2, and you’re down in the second set 5-4, deuce, no advantage. It’s match point, for Oklahoma State to go up 3-1. You rally and win the point, and ultimately the match. Do you remember specific moments in big matches like that? If so, what was on your mind?

TD: Yeah, I remember being down match point. It helps to have video to look back on to make it all clearer. I don’t think at the time I was aware that we would have gone down 3-1. The way the courts were set up, it was just Carol [Zhao] and I playing next to each other. Carol was about to split sets, and again, I was just trying to stay on the court and try to win a couple games. At that point I’m not thinking, “I need to win this match.” If you start thinking like that, it’s too much pressure and it’s too big picture.

I was just thinking, “One point at a time, try to get a couple games back and let’s stay out here.” Then all of a sudden, I look up and I’m ahead in the second and eventually winning it. So it was kind of unintentional, but at the same time, it was really helpful to the team that I was able to get back into that match.

I also remember the crowd was really motivating me at that specific point in the match. I don’t think they were intending to do that, because I think there were over 1,000 Oklahoma State fans watching there (the match was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma). They were pretty brutal, sitting right behind me on the court. It usually helps me when people are cheering against me — it actually makes me play better. After getting that point, I remember being very pumped up and like, “Okay, you know what? I’m not done.”

TSD: In the third set, you’re serving 5-4, and you get broken quickly. You break back and get another chance to serve for the championship at 6-5. You go up 40-30 and have two points for the national championship on your racket — what’s going through your head?

TD: At that point, I knew how nervous I was, which was why I ended up slicing everything on my second match point. I was very in touch with my nerves, and I knew they weren’t going to go away, so I just had to find a way to play and overcome them. I didn’t really care if the point was pretty. You don’t look back and say, “I wish I had hit a beautiful winner to win the national championship.” You look back and say, “Yeah, we won it.”

TSD: Was that the most nervous you’ve ever been?

TD: Yeah [laughs].

TSD: You dropped to the floor after that point and your whole team mobbed you. What was that feeling like?

TD: It was probably the most relieved I’ve ever been. It was actually the most emotional swing I’ve ever experienced, I think, to be that nervous and hoping [opponent Vladica Babic] would miss the ball, and thinking that I was going to run everything down and make every shot, and when she finally missed, it was just the biggest rush of relief. I didn’t even mean to fall down, my body was just so exhausted that it was like, “Okay, you’re done.” Before my team rushed over to me — it took them like, three seconds to get there — but before they made it over, I just remember laying on the ground and looking up at the clouds and being like, “It’s over. We did it.”

TSD: Who was the coolest person that reached out to you after? Did you hear from any of your idols or big fans after winning that match?

TD: A lot of the alumni reached out to me, which was really cool. We have a thread that they use during the matches to cheer us on. Patrick McEnroe tweeted last year as well about my forehand slice, which cracked me up. There weren’t any specific people, but I just remember checking my phone after and my Twitter notifications were maxed out, Instagram notifications maxed out and I had like 150 text messages. It was just overwhelming love from everyone, which was pretty cool.

TSD: Your time at Stanford is finally coming to a close… What are your feelings about having two weeks of school left? Do you have plans post-graduation?

TD: It’s really kind of a surreal moment, even though I haven’t graduated yet, to think that all the hard work is about to pay off. I’m really excited to graduate. Four straight years of school here is very tough, at least it was for me. After graduation, I have a job in Redondo Beach where I’m going to be doing some business and financial stuff for Northrop Grumman. I want to go back home eventually, but I’m really excited to be in Redondo, and it’s a fun place to be at my age.

TSD: Where do you stand with tennis? Are you hanging up the rackets?

TD: I think I’ll teach and give some lessons down in SoCal. As far as playing, I think I’m going to take a little break. It’s been about 14 years with no time off, so I think I’ve earned it [laughs].

 

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

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Women’s tennis bested by No. 1 Florida in NCAA Championship https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/24/womens-tennis-bested-by-no-1-florida-in-ncaa-championship/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/24/womens-tennis-bested-by-no-1-florida-in-ncaa-championship/#respond Wed, 24 May 2017 07:46:31 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127996 Stanford women’s tennis’ quest to win back-to-back national championships fell just short in Athens, Georgia on Tuesday night, as the Cardinal fell to Florida in the NCAA final.

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Stanford women’s tennis’ quest to win back-to-back national championships fell just short in Athens, Georgia on Tuesday night, as the Cardinal fell to the No. 1 Florida Gators in the NCAA final.

An eerily familiar script emerged over the past 10 days, as Stanford – seeded seventh despite just two losses entering the postseason – marched through the tournament bracket, slaying No. 4 UNC and No. 2 Ohio State en route to the final. Last year, the 15-seed Cardinal became the lowest seeded team to ever bring home the trophy. The program also won championships in 2013 as a 12-seed and in 2010 as an eight-seed.

This year, the magic ran out a match too early, as the top-seeded Gators stamped out hopes of another Cinderella run with a 4-1 victory.

The title match was delayed three hours by stormy Georgian skies, with the teams taking the court at 8 p.m. Florida quickly made up for lost time, however, racing out to a 1-0 lead with victories on Courts 1 and 3. Stanford had found itself in a similar position in the semifinal against Ohio State and had been able to rally, but this time around Florida’s depth in the singles lineup proved too great to overcome.

The Gators grabbed early leads on five of the six courts, and tallied on another point when Kourtney Keegan crushed Stanford freshman Emma Higuchi 6-0, 6-0 on Court 6. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise phenomenal season for Higuchi, who saw her 22-match winning streak end with the loss.

Less than half an hour later, Belinda Woolcock, the sixth-ranked player in the nation, put the Gators on the brink of the title with a comprehensive straight-set victory over Caroline Doyle on Court 1, giving Florida a 3-0 lead.

Needing wins on all four courts, the Cardinal were delivered a glimmer of hope by sophomore Melissa Lord, who battled to a 6-4, 7-5 victory at the No. 2 position, as the three remaining matches entered third sets. It was too little too late, however, as soon after Lord’s victory the Gators’ Ingrid Neel delivered the knockout punch with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Stanford’s Taylor Davidson.

The match was the 10th meeting between the teams in the NCAA final in the 36 years since the tournament was established, a testament to the dominance of the two programs on the college tennis landscape. Though the Gators earned their seventh title, Stanford remains the winningest team in the sport, with 18 team titles to its name.  

Despite the loss, Stanford enjoyed a remarkable season, going undefeated in conference play to claim its 26th Pac-12 title, and defeating five top 10 teams.  

The season isn’t over just yet for a few Cardinal players, as Davidson, Doyle and Lord are slated to compete in the NCAA singles championships beginning tomorrow. Davidson is also scheduled to play in the doubles tournament with freshman Emily Arbuthnott.

 

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

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Men’s tennis falls in NCAA Round of 16, promising future beckons https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/22/mens-tennis-falls-in-ncaa-round-of-16-promising-future-beckons/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/22/mens-tennis-falls-in-ncaa-round-of-16-promising-future-beckons/#respond Mon, 22 May 2017 07:44:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127836 Stanford men’s tennis’ 2016-17 campaign came to an end after dropping a 4-0 contest to No. 1 Wake Forest on Thursday in the NCAA Round of 16. Despite a strong start, the sixteenth-ranked Cardinal could not keep up with the Deacs, winners of 22 of their last 23 matches (before falling to UNC in the semis).

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Stanford men’s tennis’ 2016-17 campaign came to an end after dropping a 4-0 contest to No. 1 Wake Forest on Thursday in the NCAA Round of 16. Despite a strong start, the 16th-ranked Cardinal could not keep up with the Deacs, winners of 22 of their last 23 matches.

Stanford opened things quickly, as sophomores Sameer Kumar and Michael Genender won the first doubles set on court 2. Wake Forest answered with a win on court 3, leaving the doubles point to No. 54 junior Tom Fawcett and senior Yale Goldberg against No. 4 Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim. After a tight, back-and-forth affair, Mansouri and Seraphim prevailed 7-5 to take the 1-0 match lead.

The Cardinal came out resilient in singles play, as senior Brandon Sutter grabbed the first set on court 5, while three of his teammates took first-set leads. From there, Wake Forest’s depth took over as the Deacs cruised to three straight-set victories to close out the match. No. 5 Petros Chyrsochos, a member of the Cyprus Davis Cup team, crushed Fawcett 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 1 spot, putting a dampener on an otherwise fantastic season for Fawcett, the 11th-ranked player in the nation.

The Deacs would go on to prevail on courts 3 and 4 to seal the sweep and move on to the quarterfinals for the first time in school history.

“First, congrats to Wake Forest, that is a heck of a club there,” said Stanford head coach Paul Goldstein after the match.

“In terms of positive takes, this is the most resilient bunch that I have been around, and it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with them throughout the year. They have dealt with some incredible adversity, not only with some injuries but also with some off-court stuff. I feel very proud of this team and how they have stayed the course throughout the year despite a lot of adversity.”

Winners of 17 NCAA Championships, Stanford is a storied program in the college tennis arena but has struggled to compete at the highest level in recent years. The team has reached the semifinals only once since its last title in 2000 and did not advance past the second round from 2013 to 2015.

Though Thursday’s match showed that Stanford is still a ways off from returning to the pinnacle of the sport, the season was a strong step in the right direction. In his third year at the helm of the program, Goldstein guided Stanford to its second consecutive Round of 16 appearance, a feat the team had not achieved since the 2011-2012 seasons.

As a top-16 seed, the team also hosted the first two rounds of the NCAAs for the first time since 2012, defeating Idaho and No. 17 Michigan to book its trip to Athens.    

Stanford finished the regular season tied for fourth in a stacked Pac-12 and ripped straight through a tough sequence of matches from mid-March to April, recording wins over No. 6 Cal, No. 8 Texas, No. 25 Illinois and No. 5 USC.

Looking towards next year, the team returns a young, promising core that will be ready to reload. Stanford loses starter Sutter, who had a phenomenal senior season, and doubles specialists Goldberg and Roy Lederman to graduation but should be able to fill those gaps with the addition of a top-10 recruiting class.

Barring any surprises, Fawcett, Stanford’s stalwart No. 1 player, will return for his senior season. Fawcett has occupied the top spot in Stanford’s lineup during his three years on the Farm and has been a source of consistency in singles and doubles play for Coach Goldstein throughout his career.

The junior’s season isn’t over just yet, as he will compete at the NCAA singles championships this week.

The Cardinal also return the likes of Kumar and junior David Wilczynski, who have formed a menacing big three along with Fawcett at the top of the lineup.

“As a program, we play for more than just ourselves, and we made a stride as a program in this season in terms of hosting the NCCA’s at home for the first time in five years and getting to this place,” reflected Goldstein on the conclusion of the season.

“As a program, we are not at all where we need to be and where I want us to be, but man, did we take a step this year.”

 

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

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No. 16 men’s tennis punches ticket to NCAA Sweet 16 https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/15/no-16-mens-tennis-punches-ticket-to-ncaa-sweet-16/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/15/no-16-mens-tennis-punches-ticket-to-ncaa-sweet-16/#respond Mon, 15 May 2017 07:09:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127492 A weekend of packed action came to a fruitful close for Stanford men’s tennis, as the 16th-ranked Cardinal won hard-fought matches over Idaho and No. 17 Michigan in the NCAA Championships to reach the Sweet 16. Taube Stadium was teeming with fans Friday through Sunday with the men’s and women’s teams opening tournament play on […]

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A weekend of packed action came to a fruitful close for Stanford men’s tennis, as the 16th-ranked Cardinal won hard-fought matches over Idaho and No. 17 Michigan in the NCAA Championships to reach the Sweet 16.

Taube Stadium was teeming with fans Friday through Sunday with the men’s and women’s teams opening tournament play on their home courts. The Cardinal men (18-8, 4-3 Pac-12) opened play on Friday against Big Sky conference champion Idaho (16-8, 9-2 Big Sky).

Stanford’s depth throughout the lineup shined through against the Vandals, who were swept 4-0 despite playing the Cardinal close in both doubles play.

“I enjoyed today’s competition,” said Stanford head coach Paul Goldstein. “Idaho was a competitive and classy team that we have a lot of respect for.”

Stanford earned a tightly contested doubles point behind victories on Courts 3 and 2, before racing to a 3-0 victory with wins from No. 11 junior Tom Fawcett and sophomore Sameer Kumar. Fawcett rode a big serving day to an easy victory on Court 1, while Kumar was pushed slightly further at the second spot, taking the match in a second-set tiebreaker over Felipe Fonseca.

Brandon Sutter wrapped things up for the Cardinal on Court 5, also prevailing in a second-set tiebreak to clinch the sweep. It was the senior’s fifth clinching point of the season. The match played closer than the score indicated though, as Courts 3 and 6 were locked in third-set battles when play was suspended.

Stanford returned to play on Saturday against Michigan (23-7, 10-2 Big 10), which had defeated Valparaiso in the first round the previous day. The teams split sets at the No. 2 and 3 spots in doubles play, leaving the point to be decided by Stanford’s No. 54 Fawcett and senior Yale Goldberg against No. 29 Connor Johnston and Jathan Malik. Down two match points in the set tiebreaker, Fawcett and Goldberg found another gear to pull the upset 7-6 (5) and put the Cardinal up 1-0.

Fawcett and Sutter were as reliable as ever in singles play, both winning in straight sets to make the score 3-0 and put Stanford on the brink. The Wolverines made things interesting from there though, winning on Court 6 and taking the first sets on Courts 3 and 4 in tiebreakers.

Locked in a battle on Court 2, Kumar stamped out any potential drama with a 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (6) victory over Michigan’s No. 86 Alex Knight in a tight third-set tiebreak, the fourth of the day. It was a momentous occasion for Kumar’s, as his first clinching point in two years of collegiate tennis sent Stanford through to the Round of 16.

“Today was exciting collegiate tennis,” said Goldstein after the match. “TNT might think they know drama, but collegiate tennis where the real drama is, which today’s match showed… Credit to Michigan, they brought excitement throughout the match, but [we] showed poise.”

The match was Stanford’s last at home this season, as the team will travel to Athens, Georgia, where the remainder of the tournament will be played. The Cardinal face a stiff challenge in the next round, where top-seeded Wake Forest awaits. First serve will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.  

 

Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu

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No. 17 men’s tennis falls in Pac-12 semifinals https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/02/no-17-mens-tennis-falls-in-pac-12-semifinals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/02/no-17-mens-tennis-falls-in-pac-12-semifinals/#respond Tue, 02 May 2017 08:38:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126902 After two rounds of exceptional play, No. 17 Stanford men’s tennis’ first postseason jaunt came to an end on Friday with a sweep loss to No. 5 UCLA in the Pac-12 Championships in Ojai.

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After two rounds of exceptional play, No. 17 Stanford men’s tennis’ first postseason jaunt came to an end on Friday with a sweep loss to No. 5 UCLA in the Pac-12 Championships in Ojai, California.

The Cardinal (14-7, 4-3 Pac-12) breezed past Arizona (9-16, 0-7) 4-1 in the opening round and earned a bit of late-season revenge against No. 21 Oregon (18-5, 4-3) before falling to the eventual runner-up Bruins in the semifinals. No. 7 USC would take the conference title with a 4-3 victory over its cross-town rival.

Stanford was thoroughly outmatched on Friday afternoon, as the Bruins (18-4, 6-0) raced to a 1-0 lead after capturing the doubles points. Straight-set victories on Courts 3, 4 and 6 swiftly ended the match at 4-0 UCLA. It was Stanford’s third loss to UCLA this season, though the teams played closer in the two previous meetings, which both finished 4-2.

“Congratulations to UCLA on being the better team today and advancing to the finals,” head coach Paul Goldstein said after the match. “[We] performed well this weekend to advance to the semifinals despite not being at our optimum health… Our priority now is to take the next two weeks to get ourselves physically healthy and mentally fresh for NCAAs.”

The tough result came at the end of an overall positive tournament for the Cardinal. William Genesen clinched a 4-1 win against Arizona, battling to a three-set win over Andres Reyes to move Stanford into the quarterfinals. The freshman has been on a tear since being inserted into the lineup, moving to 10-3 in dual play.

In the quarters, Stanford added a signature 4-2 win over Oregon that featured tight matches across the board. After trailing in all three doubles matches, the Cardinal rallied to a pair of 7-5 wins on Courts 1 and 3 to take the early lead.

The Ducks would fight back in singles play, claiming the first two matches as sophomores Sameer Kumar and Michael Genender fell on Courts 3 and 4 respectively. However, Stanford would have the last say, as senior Brandon Sutter pulled out a 7-5 third-set win over Cormac Clissold on Court 5 to make the score 3-1.

All eyes moved to Court 1, where junior Tom Fawcett and Oregon’s Thomas Laurent, both among the top 25 players in the country, were locked in a heated battle under the Ojai sun.

Just two weeks prior, Laurent had easily bested Fawcett 6-4, 6-0 as the Ducks upset Stanford 4-3. Laurent looked poised to repeat, taking a 6-1 tiebreak lead after a tight first set. Fawcett would come roaring back though, saving five set points to take the tiebreak 9-7, and eventually closing the match with a 6-4 second-set win.

Fawcett’s win marked a career milestone, as the junior reached his 40th career dual play win. The victory moved him into elite company among Stanford greats, including Patrick McEnroe, Goldstein and the Bryan Brothers, all of whom notched 40-plus wins during their careers on the Farm.

Though the sweep loss to UCLA put a slight dampener on the tournament, Stanford will have plenty of time to rest and reload ahead of the NCAA Championships, which begin May 12.

 

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

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No. 15 men’s tennis faces Arizona to open Pac-12 Championships https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/26/no-15-mens-tennis-faces-arizona-to-open-pac-12-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/26/no-15-mens-tennis-faces-arizona-to-open-pac-12-championships/#respond Wed, 26 Apr 2017 07:22:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126483 With the regular season in the books, Stanford men’s tennis will open its postseason on Wednesday in Ojai, taking on Arizona in the first round of the Pac-12 Championships.

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With the regular season in the books, Stanford men’s tennis (14-7, 4-3 Pac-12) will open its postseason on Wednesday in Ojai, California, taking on Arizona (9-16, 0-7) in the first round of the Pac-12 Championships.

The Cardinal enter the tournament as the fifth seed despite being the fifteenth-ranked team in the nation, a testament to the depth of the Pac-12 this year. Conference members UCLA, USC and Cal are all among the top 10, and Oregon holds the No. 21 ranking.

The Ducks jumped a couple of spots in the rankings following their 4-3 upset victory over Stanford last week. With both teams tied at 4-3 in conference play at the end of the season, that match wound up playing a pivotal role in tournament seedings. Oregon won the head-to-head tiebreak and, as a result, earned the fourth seed and a bye into the second round.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal will have to battle through Arizona and the Ojai heat in order to set up a rematch with the Ducks in the quarterfinals.

As the eighth seed, Arizona holds the worst record in the conference and has struggled to stay relevant amidst its competition this year. The Wildcats are one of just two teams (along with Utah) in the Pac-12 that does not feature a nationally ranked player in singles or doubles.

Stanford blanked Arizona 4-0 at home just over a month ago, winning all its matches in straight sets, and will look to replicate that performance in order to move on to the next round. Historically, the Cardinal have enjoyed huge success against the Wildcats, with a whopping 68-2 overall record. Arizona last beat Stanford in 2009 but has come up empty-handed in the teams’ eight meetings since.

Stanford will look to rely on its doubles play, which has been a phenomenal asset for the team all season. The Cardinal have won the doubles point in 14 of their 20 dual matches this season. Stanford’s top pairing of Tom Fawcett and Yale Goldberg are ranked No. 57 in the country, and Brandon Sutter and David Wilczynski own a solid 13-4 record playing mostly at the third spot.

In singles play, Stanford features No. 11 Tom Fawcett on Court 1, but the squad has depth throughout its six-man lineup. Junior Wilczynski has come into his own this season, owning a 16-3 dual match record and two Pac-12 Player of the Week Honors. Freshman William Genesen has also made the most of his recent insertion into the lineup and has rattled off six straight wins to close the regular season.  

Play against the Wildcats begins on Wednesday at noon, with the winner facing Oregon on Thursday at noon in Ojai.

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

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Women’s water polo honors seniors, routs SJSU to complete regular season https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/24/womens-water-polo-honors-seniors-routs-sjsu-to-complete-regular-season/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/24/womens-water-polo-honors-seniors-routs-sjsu-to-complete-regular-season/#respond Tue, 25 Apr 2017 06:27:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126415 Second-ranked Stanford women’s water polo (18-2, 5-1 MPSF) wrapped up its home slate on Saturday, cruising to a 17-3 win over No. 16 San Jose State (10-17, 1-5) and honoring its six seniors playing in their final game at Avery Aquatic Center.

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Second-ranked Stanford women’s water polo (18-2, 5-1 MPSF) wrapped up its home slate on Saturday, cruising to a 17-3 win over No. 16 San Jose State (10-17, 1-5) and honoring its six seniors playing in their final game at Avery Aquatic Center.

It was the second meeting between the teams, with the Cardinal having topped the Spartans 17-1 to open the season in January. Saturday’s proceedings unfolded similarly, as junior Jordan Raney scored a hat trick, while senior Maggie Steffens added a pair of goals for before the halftime mark to take a 7-1 Stanford lead into halftime.

The Cardinal women came out steaming in the second half, scoring five consecutive goals, including a fourth from Raney and third from Steffens, to put the match out of question. Leading 14-3 heading into the fourth quarter, Stanford shut out SJSU in the fourth while tacking on three to make the final score 17-3. Senior Jamie Neushul caught fire in the second half, scoring three in the third and adding a fourth in the final period.

Though the Spartans struggled to advance the ball against a stifling Stanford defense, the Cardinal goalkeepers were firm in goal when tested. Senior Gabby Stone recorded five saves, and Julia Hermann added another three.

Head coach John Tanner and the crowd at Avery honored seniors Dani Jackovich, Sophia Monaghan, Jamie Neushul, Cassidy Papa, Maggie Steffens and Gabby Stone with a pre-game ceremony, as the group of six put the finishing touches on their college careers.

With six minutes left in the game, Tanner subbed his seniors out for a final standing ovation from the fans. All six players enjoyed monumental success during their time on the Farm, winning nearly 90 percent of their games and bringing home national championships in 2014 and 2015.

With the regular season complete, Stanford heads into MPSF Tournament play in Southern California ahead of the year-end NCAA Championships in Indianapolis. Stanford earned the second seed in this year’s conference tournament in a goal-differential tiebreaker after No. 1 UCLA defeated No. 2 USC (tied with Stanford in the national rankings) 11-7 this weekend.

Seventh-seed CSU Bakersfield (12-15, 0-6) will be Stanford’s first opponent in tournament play, a team that the Cardinal easily handled 19-2 exactly a month ago. The match begins at 11 am on Friday at UCLA.

 

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

 

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Pacific Northwest trip ends in upset loss for No. 15 men’s tennis https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/17/pacific-northwest-trip-ends-in-upset-loss-for-no-15-mens-tennis/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/17/pacific-northwest-trip-ends-in-upset-loss-for-no-15-mens-tennis/#respond Tue, 18 Apr 2017 06:11:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126083 No. 15 Stanford men’s tennis’ road trip to the Pacific Northwest came to a disappointing end this weekend, falling to Oregon after easily handling Washington on Friday. The Cardinal entered Sunday’s match against No. 23 Oregon riding six wins in their last seven matches -- including a massive upset of No. 5 USC last week -- but that momentum sputtered to a halt against the Ducks in a 4-3 loss.

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No. 15 Stanford men’s tennis’ road trip to the Pacific Northwest came to a disappointing end this weekend, falling to Oregon after easily handling Washington on Friday. The Cardinal entered Sunday’s match against the No. 23 Ducks riding six wins in their last seven matches — including a massive victory over No. 5 USC last week — but that momentum sputtered to a halt in a 4-3 upset loss.

Despite cold, windy weather conditions, Stanford (14-6, 4-2 Pac-12) cruised to a 4-0 win in Friday’s matchup against Washington (12-9, 1-5). The only drama of the dual came on Court 3 in doubles play, when the Stanford team of Brandon Sutter and David Wilczynski found themselves down 5-1 in the tiebreaker with the doubles point on the line. The duo came storming back, saving a match point to clinch the breaker 12-10 and take a 1-0 lead.

Straight-set victories from Wilczynski, Tom Fawcett and Brandon Sutter and Tom Fawcett at the No. 3, 1 and 5 spots respectively secured the win for Stanford, as Sutter clinched for the third time this season.

Despite its losing conference record, Oregon (17-5, 3-3) promised a much trickier matchup for the Cardinal on Sunday. Led by Frenchman Thomas Laurent, the No. 26 player in the country and owner of a 17-2 dual play record, the Ducks were fresh off 4-3 losses to No. 10 UCLA and No. 12 Cal that could have easily fallen their way.

Things finally did tip in Oregon’s favor against the Cardinal, as sophomore Ethan Young-Smith pulled out a three-set victory over Stanford’s Jack Barber on Court 6 with the score tied 3-3 to score the upset. The victory tied a mark for the highest-ranked win in school history for the Ducks.

“Today was a disappointing result against Oregon,” said Stanford head coach Paul Goldstein after the match. “We had a lot of guys in difficult spots …We had our opportunities, but we were unable to finish.”

The Cardinal got off to a characteristically strong start, earning the doubles point with another win from Sutter and Wilczynski at No. 3 and taking a 2-1 lead behind another comprehensive straight-set victory from Wilczynski over Oregon’s Jayson Amos in singles.

The tides shifted in the Ducks favor from there though, as Laurent dominated tenth-ranked Fawcett at the top spot, 6-4, 6-0. It was Laurent’s second win against a top-15 opponent this year and his 28th victory this season overall, setting an Oregon program record.

At No. 2, Oregon transfer Akihiro Tanaka upset a slightly banged up Sameer Kumar in three sets while Stanford’s William Genesen pulled out a tightly contested victory on Court 5, evening the score at 3-3 with Young-Smith and Barber battling it out at No. 6.

With both players returning to their teams’ starting lineups for the first time in weeks, Barber took the first set 6-2. Young-Smith responded emphatically with a 7-5 win in Set 2 before racing out to a 3-0 lead in the decider. The Stanford sophomore was unable to work his way back into the match as Young-Smith took the third set 6-2 to clinch the match.

It was a pivotal loss for Stanford in the conference play picture, as the team had been in control of its own destiny to finish the season second behind UCLA. Instead, the Cardinal will need a win over No. 12 Cal in its final regular season match plus some help to earn a top-two seed in the year-end Pac-12 Championships.

Stanford goes head-to-head with the Golden Bears this Saturday at 3:30 pm in Berkeley, with the match broadcast live on Pac-12 Networks.

 

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

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Men’s tennis earns marquee win over No. 5 Trojans in weekend split https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/10/mens-tennis-earns-marquee-win-over-no-5-trojans-in-weekend-split/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/10/mens-tennis-earns-marquee-win-over-no-5-trojans-in-weekend-split/#respond Tue, 11 Apr 2017 06:11:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125653 No. 19 Stanford men’s tennis earned the biggest win of its season to date over the weekend, upsetting No. 5 USC 4-1 behind phenomenal singles play at Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal men continued the trend of producing their best tennis in the biggest moments, notching their third top-10 win in three tries and extending their win streak to five. Those feats wouldn’t stand for long, however, as the team fell 4-2 to No. 10 UCLA on Sunday.

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No. 19 Stanford men’s tennis (13-5, 3-1 Pac-12) earned the biggest win of its season to date over the weekend, upsetting No. 5 USC (20-4, 3-1) 4-1 behind phenomenal singles play at Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal men continued the trend of producing their best tennis in the biggest moments, notching their third top-10 win in three tries and extending their win streak to five. Those feats wouldn’t stand for long, however, as the team fell 4-2 to No. 10 UCLA (14-4, 3-0) on Sunday.

Senior Brandon Sutter clinched Stanford’s victory over the Trojans on Friday, upending Thibault Forget in straight sets to improve 12-3 in dual play this season and keep the Cardinal atop the Pac-12 standings.

“I am incredibly happy for the team with this win over a quality opponent,” said coach Paul Goldstein. “Everyone on the team has been playing great tennis and today they came out and executed our game plan.”

Stanford entered the weekend winners of six of their last seven dual matches, including monumental upsets over No. 6 Cal and No. 8 Texas and a perfect 2-0 start to conference play. The matchup against USC promised stiff competition though, as the Trojans had flummoxed the Cardinal in their last three meetings including a 4-3 loss in LA earlier this season.

Friday’s edition of the conference rivalry got off to a foreboding start for the Cardinal after USC took a 1-0 lead into singles play. Junior Tom Fawcett and senior Yale Goldberg teamed up to dispatch No. 11 Brandon Holt and Riley Smith on Court 1, but the Trojans cleaned up on Courts 2 and 3 to clinch the ever important doubles point, placing their deep singles lineup in favorable position.

Undeterred, Stanford came out blazing after the break, capturing the first set on all six singles courts. Following straight-set wins from Sameer Kumar, Fawcett and David Wilczynski at the top three spots, Sutter sealed the victory on Court 5 and was mobbed by teammates as the Cardinal recorded their first-win over USC since 2015.

“This win is wonderful for the team, our fans and the program,” Goldstein said after the match, “but we aren’t content with it. We want more and we know we can be better than we were today and will continue our progress towards that goal.”

The script was reversed for Stanford on Sunday, with the team jumping out to a 2-0 lead after taking the doubles point and a comprehensive demolition of No. 15 Gage Brymer by No. 17 Fawcett at the top singles spot. Fawcett’s 6-2, 6-1 victory over Brymer, the nation’s top recruit in 2013, capped a flawless weekend in which he defeated two top-20 players to improve to 7-3 on the season.

The momentum shifted swiftly though, as the Bruins rattled off four straight victories to take the match, 4-2. Evan Zhu snapped Wilczynski’s six-match win streak with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory to clinch the dual for UCLA.

“Were a young team, and that showed today,” reflected Goldstein after the loss. “[But] we’re looking to finish at least top-16 in the regular season and have the chance to refocus and elevate our game this week against some tough opponents.”

The Cardinal are in prime position to achieve that goal, as they will move up in the rankings after the weekend’s play with three matches left before the Pac-12 Championships. The team heads to the Pacific Northwest this weekend to take on Washington on Friday and No. 25 Oregon on Sunday.

 

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

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Veterans Steffens and Stone shine as No. 2 water polo extends winning streak https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/04/veterans-steffens-and-stone-shine-as-no-2-water-polo-extends-winning-streak/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/04/veterans-steffens-and-stone-shine-as-no-2-water-polo-extends-winning-streak/#respond Tue, 04 Apr 2017 07:06:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125300 There were no days off this spring break for Stanford women’s water polo, as the team earned statement wins over MPSF opponents CSU Bakersfield and California. Riding career-best performances from veterans Maggie Steffens and Gabby Stone, the Cardinal women extended their winning streak to five and moved to 16-1 on the season (3-0 MPSF), entering the final stretch of the season in full throttle.

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There were no days off this spring break for Stanford women’s water polo as the team earned statement wins over MPSF opponents CSU Bakersfield and California. Riding career-best performances from veterans Maggie Steffens and Gabby Stone, the Cardinal women extended their winning streak to five and moved to 16-1 on the season (3-0 MPSF), entering the final stretch of the season in full throttle.

After a month and a half of away competition, Stanford returned to the familiar waters of Avery Aquatic Center on March 25 to take on struggling conference opponent CSU Bakersfield (12-13, 0-5 MPSF). The second-ranked Cardinal came out firing early on, opening up a 7-0 lead behind a first-quarter hat trick from Steffens that squashed any hope of a Roadrunners upset.

Even with an insurmountable lead, Steffens kept the intensity high en route to a career-high seven goals. Junior Katie Dudley added a hat trick of her own while eight more players found the back of the net for Stanford to make the final score 19-2.

While the Stanford offense conjured highlight after highlight, the defense was equally remarkable, allowing just one goal in the second and third quarters apiece. The Cardinal shut out the Roadrunners on their four power plays, including a 6-on-4 opportunity. Stone recorded eight stops in three quarters before letting Julia Hermann take over goalkeeping duties in the fourth.

The Cardinal made the short trip across the Bay on April 2 to take on archrival No. 5 Cal (13-6, 1-3) in the annual Big Splash. It was the third meeting this season between the teams; Stanford defeated the Golden Bears on both previous occasions in invitational play though neither counted towards conference standings.       

After winning 12 of their first 13 games, Cal had limped to a 1-4 record in its last five games, lacking the offensive firepower that had characterized the first half of its season.

Stanford took quick advantage, jumping to a 3-0 lead after the first behind two goals from Steffens. Cal would manage just one goal in first half, as Steffens and freshman Makenzie Fischer completed hat tricks to push the final score to 8-2.

Stanford’s defense was effective in limiting chances by the Cal offense, holding the Bears to 1-for-7 on 5-on-6 chances. However, it was Stone who stole the show in the cage as the senior recorded 15 saves to tie her personal best. The outing pushed her career total to 506, as she became the fourth player in program history to eclipse the 500 mark.   

Steffens’ offensive onslaught over the pair of games rounded out a phenomenal month in which she has averaged 3.3 goals per game to reach a career goal total of 210. The senior driver finds herself just 30 goals short of Stanford’s all-time record with three regular season games and a likely slew of conference and tournament postseason games remaining.

The victory kept Stanford undefeated in conference play and atop the standings along with No. 1 USC and No. 3 UCLA. The three-way tie won’t last for long, however, as Stanford will play at USC this weekend before taking on the Bruins on April 15. 

 

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

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Steffens reaches career milestone as No. 2 women’s water polo obliterates competition in Tempe https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/15/steffens-reaches-career-milestone-as-no-2-womens-water-polo-obliterates-competition-in-tempe/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/15/steffens-reaches-career-milestone-as-no-2-womens-water-polo-obliterates-competition-in-tempe/#respond Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:53:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124953 Senior Maggie Steffens reached a historic career milestone and No. 2 Stanford women’s water polo recovered its mojo this weekend in the desert, routing opponents No. 7 ASU, La Verne and No. 23 Marist by a combined score of 49-7.

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Senior Maggie Steffens reached a historic career milestone and No. 2 Stanford women’s water polo recovered its mojo this weekend in the desert, routing opponents No. 7 ASU, La Verne and No. 23 Marist by a combined score of 49-7.

It was the Cardinal’s first jaunt in the pool following the team’s first loss, an overtime heartbreaker to No. 1 USC at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational two weeks ago. Stanford came up one short in the invite final following a goal from the Trojans in the closing seconds, a result eerily similar to last year’s NCAA title game in the first rematch between the teams.    

There were no signs of leftover lethargy as Stanford came out strong in its first MPSF game against Arizona State. Olympians Steffens and Makenzie Fischer each scored a pair of goals in the first quarter, and senior Gaby Stone stood firm in goal to take a 4-0 lead into the break.

Stanford continued pressing offensively in the second half to build up an insurmountable 7-1 lead going into the final period. Steffens and Fischer would complete their respective hat tricks, and ASU added a pair of goals in the last three minutes to make the final score 9-3.

It was Stanford’s fifth win against a team currently ranked in the top 10 nationally. Despite cruising over the Sun Devils with relative ease, it was one of the Cardinal’s narrower margins of victory this season as the team prepares itself for the elevated level of conference play.

Stanford wrapped up the final two games of its non-conference schedule against La Verne and Marist to close the weekend in Tempe with little suspense. Freshmen Kayla Constandse and Hannah Shabb recorded the first goals of their young careers to help Stanford to a 21-3 romping of the La Verne Leopards.  

The Cardinal hit the 20-goal mark for the second time this season with a staggering 11 players finding the back of the net. That mark would only be bettered on Sunday in a 19-1 victory over Marist that saw a season-high 12 Cardinal pour in goals.

The most notable moment of the weekend came at the end of the first quarter against Marist, when Steffens beat the keeper for the 200th goal of her career. The senior became only the fifth Stanford player to achieve the feat, adding to a lengthy list of accomplishments that includes two Olympics MVPs and three First Team All-American honors. If she keeps up her current goal rate, Steffens will have a great chance at finishing her career in at least third on Stanford’s all-time goals list (Melissa Seidemann ’13 and Lauren Silver ’09 sit atop the list at 239 apiece).

The Cardinal will have two weeks off before returning to the pool on March 25 against CSU Bakersfield at Avery Aquatics Center.

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

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Records fall for Williams, track and field at NCAA Indoors https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/15/records-fall-for-williams-track-and-field-at-ncaa-indoors/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/15/records-fall-for-williams-track-and-field-at-ncaa-indoors/#respond Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:50:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124974 Stanford track and field closed the first portion of its season at the NCAA Indoor Championships with top-10 finishes from Harrison Williams, Vanessa Fraser and the women’s distance medley relay team.

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Stanford track and field closed the first portion of its season at the NCAA Indoor Championships with top-10 finishes from Harrison Williams, Vanessa Fraser and the women’s distance medley relay team.

In the heptathlon, junior Williams finished sixth with a personal best and school record score of 5,970. After the first day of competition, Williams found himself in 11th place with just three events remaining. Williams would torch the competition on Day Two, clearing 17-7 (5.36 m) in the pole vault and very nearly breaking the NCAA record with close jumps at 17-11. He closed the meet with a personal best of 2:39.45 in the 1,000-meter to surge five spots up the leaderboard and finish just six points short of fifth-place Lindon Victor of Texas A&M.

“I was really proud of how Harrison competed these two days,” said multis coach Michael Eskind. “It’s a testament to his maturity and composure to have a lifetime best score with a single event PR.”

Williams scored 33 points higher than he did last year at the championships, where he placed fourth, an indication of the extraordinary depth of this year’s participants. It was the highest score for a sixth-place finisher in event history and would have also broken the record for fifth place.

The Cardinal men were also represented in the distance medley relay with high hopes as the No. 3 seed. However, a botched exchange on the final baton handoff between Brian Smith and Jack Keelan took the team out of contention, and they settled for a 12th-place finish.

Keelan also competed in his first NCAA individual meet, taking 11th in the 3,000-meter with a 8:10.03 time.

On the women’s side, senior Vanessa Fraser finished fifth in the 3,000, a five-spot improvement from last year. Fraser made her move from the back of the pack with five laps to to take the lead, but ultimately did not have the leg speed to close the race.

Junior Olivia Baker competed well in the 800-meter, cutting her time from last year by a few tenths to 2:04.45. It was the fastest-ever time by a Stanford sprinter at NCAA Indoors and earned her a seventh-place finish.

Earlier in the day, Fraser and teammates Elise Cranny, Missy Mongiovi and Malika Waschmann notched Stanford’s best result of the entire meet, a second-place finish in the distance medley relay. Junior Cranny entered the anchor leg in ninth place, but ran a scorching 4:33.76 1600-meter to move into first with barely 30 meters to go. However, Colorado’s Dani Jones emerged from the pack to match Cranny in the final lengths and inch into first by a mere 0.02 seconds.

Nevertheless, it was an impressive performance by the Cardinal relay team that helped the women earn a 10th-place overall finish. “We gave it everything we had,” Cranny said. “We all did the best we could. We’re happy with that.”

With the indoor season all wrapped up, most of the team will next compete at home in the Stanford Invitational on March 31.

 

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

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Cardinal clinches monumental Big Slam upset https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/08/cardinal-clinches-monumental-big-slam-upset/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/08/cardinal-clinches-monumental-big-slam-upset/#respond Thu, 09 Mar 2017 06:53:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124628 No. 41 Stanford (7-3) pulled the upset of its young season on Tuesday, beating Cal (9-2) in a 4-3 thriller at Taube Tennis Center. Strong singles play and a back-and-forth three-set clincher from sophomore Michael Genender proved just enough for the Cardinal to slip by the Golden Bears.

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No. 41 Stanford men’s tennis (7-3) pulled the upset of its young season on Tuesday, beating Cal (9-2) in a 4-3 thriller at Taube Tennis Center. Strong singles play and a back-and-forth, three-set clincher from sophomore Michael Genender proved just enough for the Cardinal to slip by the Golden Bears.

After dropping hard-fought losses on the road against No. 14 USC and No. 13 UCLA, Stanford returned to the Farm in the midst of its toughest stretch of the season to face No. 6 UC Berkeley. Though Cal has been among the nation’s best teams in the last couple of years, the Cardinal have found a way to produce their best tennis against their biggest rival; two of the teams’ last three meetings ended in 4-3 scores either way.

Stanford fell behind early, failing to capitalize on the momentum of back-to-back doubles wins against USC and UCLA. Cal’s hard-serving duo of Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat – the No. 1 doubles team in the country – got off to a quick start by dispatching Tom Fawcett and William Genesen 6-4. Cal would soon after clinch the point with a 7-5 victory on Court Two.

Losing the ever-important doubles point would present Stanford with a significant challenge in singles play, as the Bears boast one of the deepest lineups in the country with four ranked players. However, the score was quickly evened at one apiece after sophomore Sameer Kumar stunned No. 30 Andre Goransson 6-3, 6-1 on Court 2. The teams traded wins at the No. 4 and 5 spots to make the score 2-2.

On Court 1, Cardinal No. 13 Tom Fawcett and No. 14 Florian Lakat were locked in an exchange of big serves and forehands, with Fawcett taking the first set 7-6(5). On serve at 5-4 in the second, Fawcett found a way to break serve for the match, putting Stanford on the brink of the monumental upset. Moments later though, the battle of Bay Area products J.T. Nishimura and Brandon Sutter would come to an end at the No. 6 spot, with Cal’s Nishimura prevailing in three sets to even the score again at three.

The dual would come down to the third set on Court Three between Stanford sophomore Michael Genender and senior Filip Bergevi, who was playing in his first match in two weeks after an injury.

It was an eerily familiar position for Genender: In last year’s rendition of the Big Slam, the freshman was the last on court with the tides of the match falling on his shoulders. After a tense back-and-forth with then-senior Mads Engsted, Genender fell in a 7-5 heartbreaker.

This time, the third set would be even tighter as Genender and Bergevi exchanged holds of serve to head to a tiebreaker. After both players saved multiple match points, Genender would finally close out the breaker and match 11-9, ending the most nail-biting match in recent history for the Cardinal in a victory.

The win was arguably Stanford’s biggest since 2015, when the then 39th-ranked Cardinal topped No. 14 Cal in a similar 4-3 outcome.  The team will have little time to celebrate its win, however, as it hosts No. 8 Texas and No. 31 TCU this weekend at Taube.

 

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

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Women’s swimming and diving capture Pac-12 conference crown in momentous win https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/27/womens-swimming-captures-pac-12-conference-crown-in-momentous-win/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/27/womens-swimming-captures-pac-12-conference-crown-in-momentous-win/#respond Mon, 27 Feb 2017 08:32:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123883 The wait is finally over for No. 1 Stanford women’s swimming, as the team collected its 20th Pac-12 conference crown this weekend. After three consecutive second-place finishes dating back to 2014, the Cardinal turned in a dominant performance in Federal Way, Washington, scoring 1,587 points to blow past No. 2 Cal (1,392) and No. 6 USC (1,250), who rounded out the podium.

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The wait is finally over for No. 1 Stanford women’s swimming, after the team collected its 20th Pac-12 conference crown this weekend in Washington. After three consecutive second-place finishes dating back to 2014, the Cardinal turned in a dominant performance in Federal Way, scoring 1,587 points to blow past No. 2 Cal (1,392) and No. 11 USC (1,250), which rounded out the podium.

Olympians junior Simone Manuel and freshman Katie Ledecky etched their names all over the result sheet, winning a combined five of 13 total individual events as Ledecky earned Swimmer of the Meet honors. However, it was a collective effort that earned Stanford the title, as the team also won all five relay events en route to claiming 15 of 21 total first-place finishes.

The Cardinal women got off to a piping-hot start, sweeping all seven events in the first two days of the four-day event to put themselves in the driver’s seat for the rest of the weekend.

The first event of the meet was arguably the most thrilling, as Stanford edged archrival No. 2 Cal in the 200-yard medley relay to notch its first win. After strong legs from junior Ally Howe, junior Janet Hu and sophomore Kim Williams, the Cardinal found themselves just over two-tenths of a second behind the Bears, before Manuel recorded a scorching 20.78 freestyle split to out-touch Cal’s Farida Osman at the wall by a tenth of a second.

Although relay splits are not counted towards official records, Manuel’s 50-yard sprint was the fastest in swimming history. It was the first of several incredible swims from Manuel, who has established herself as one of the finest sprinters in the world over the past year. The junior took home all three individual freestyle events (50, 100 and 200 yards), notably beating out teammates Ledecky and senior Lia Neal in the 200, who took second and third respectively.

Manuel and Neal would team up with Howe and Hu on Thursday night in the 200-yard freestyle relay in another wire-to-wire race against the Golden Bears, with Stanford again coming out on top — this time by just five-tenths of a second.   

Despite dropping a rare race to Manuel, Ledecky displayed her usual brilliance throughout the rest of the meet, most notably in the 500-yard freestyle, where she broke the U.S. and NCAA record with a 4:25.15 finish — a time faster than male Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte his freshman year of college. Ledecky would also set the college record in the 400 IM with a 3:57.68 finish.

Howe kept records falling with her moment to shine in the pool, setting the American record in the 100-yard backstroke with a 49.69 finish. Howe broke renowned backstroker Natalie Coughlin’s 15-year old record. The duo are the only two Americans to finish the event in under 50 seconds.

Diver senior Kassidy Cook also contributed her share to the Cardinal’s victory, taking first in the one-meter diving final and second in the three-meter.

After conjuring up an undefeated regular season and a maelstrom of a performance in the Pac-12 title meet, the top-ranked Cardinal will vie for their ninth NCAA title in Indianapolis in mid-March.

 

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

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Women’s water polo takes on the Barbara Kalbus Invitational https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/23/womens-water-polo-takes-on-the-barbara-kalbus-invitational/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/23/womens-water-polo-takes-on-the-barbara-kalbus-invitational/#respond Fri, 24 Feb 2017 07:08:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123614 No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo (8-0) makes the short trek to Irvine, California this weekend to compete in the Barbara Kalbus Invitational. The top-seeded Cardinal open tournament play against No. 22 CSUN, with the latter rounds dependent on the team’s early performance. Stanford has gotten off to a breezy start this season with an […]

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No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo (8-0) makes the short trek to Irvine, California this weekend to compete in the Barbara Kalbus Invitational. The top-seeded Cardinal open tournament play against No. 22 CSUN, with the latter rounds dependent on the team’s early performance.

Stanford has gotten off to a breezy start this season with an average margin of victory of over 10 goals in its first eight games, including a 19-1 rout of Santa Clara last weekend.

The field in Irvine, however, is elite from top to bottom, as all 16 teams are ranked and 12 of the top 15 teams in the country will be in attendance. Perennial Cardinal rivals No. 2 USC and No. 3 UCLA — both undefeated — will be in the pool this weekend, as well as No. 4 Cal, the only team to challenge the Cardinal in a game that ended 10-7 for Stanford earlier this season.

With USC positioned on the other side of the bracket, a tantalizing rematch of the 2016 NCAA title game looms in the final; however, Stanford will have to dispatch of several top-notch clubs in order to make it that far and retain its status as the top team in the country.

Key to Stanford’s success this weekend will be team goal-leaders Makenzie Fischer, Maggie Steffens and Jamie Neushul. Fischer is fresh off a five-goal outing against Santa Clara that earned the freshman MPSF Newcomer of the Week honors. Meanwhile, veteran seniors Steffens and Neushul continue tacking on to their triple-digit career counts.

Goalkeeping has been a collaborative effort between seniors Julia Hermann and Gabby Stone this season, though Stone has earned the starting nod in five of the team’s eight games and has been slightly more consistent, recording 9.6 saves and allowing just 4.0 shots to find the net per game.

CSUN, Stanford’s first opponent of the weekend, is off to a 9-9 start this season, with all of its losses coming against ranked teams. The Cardinal must seek to contain star junior Madeleine Sanchez, who has accounted for nearly a quarter of the Matadors’ goals this season with 38 and a .437 shooting percentage.

Stanford will begin its bid to remain unbeaten and claim its fourth Kalbus Invitational crown this Friday at 10 a.m. against the Matadors, with three more matches slated for the weekend.

 

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

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Ledecky headlines star-studded Big Swim as No. 1 Cardinal complete perfect season https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/14/ledecky-headlines-star-studded-big-swim-as-no-1-cardinal-complete-perfect-season/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/14/ledecky-headlines-star-studded-big-swim-as-no-1-cardinal-complete-perfect-season/#respond Tue, 14 Feb 2017 12:06:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123009 The most highly anticipated dual meet of the year did not disappoint, as No. 1 Stanford women’s swimming out-dueled No. 2 Cal 177-123 at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley on Saturday.

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The most highly anticipated dual meet of the year did not disappoint, as No. 1 Stanford women’s swimming out-dueled No. 2 Cal 177-123 at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley on Saturday. A frenzied, full-capacity crowd saw eight pool records fall between both teams, including three from freshman wunderkind Katie Ledecky to help the Cardinal complete its second consecutive undefeated season and enter the postseason a worthy contender for a national title.

Stanford (8-0, 7-0 Pac-12) entered the meet after two weeks off, with its last competition coming in a 202-98 blowout of No. 4 USC. The Cardinal have not been kind to their opponents this season — with an average victory margin of over 50 points, the swimmers have competed largely against themselves and each other. This trend continued on Saturday, starting with 19-year-old Ledecky, who swam to a comfortable 9:20.41 victory in the 1000-yard freestyle, with classmate Megan Byrnes taking second (9:46.47).

While Ledecky’s time set a pool record, it was a whopping 10 seconds off her NCAA record set earlier this year. The five-time Olympic gold medalist was ostensibly saving some of her energy, as she immediately returned to the pool to take on a host of fresh swimmers in the 200-yard freestyle.

Ledecky cruised to her second victory in as many events, touching the wall first in 1:43.09 with teammate Simone Manuel close behind (1:44.04). She would complete a hat trick of pool-bests later in the day, winning the 500-yard freestyle to tally 27 total points for the Cardinal.

Ledecky was far from the only headliner at the star-studded meet, as a total of nine Olympians, including five medal-winners, competed in the 16 events. Perhaps the most exciting of the day was the 100-yard freestyle, which featured Manuel, Stanford senior Lia Neal and Cal freshman Abbey Weitzel, all teammates on the silver-medal winning 4×100-meter freestyle in Rio (Neal competed in preliminary heats, while Manuel and Weitzel both raced in the final).

The Cardinal came out on top, with Manuel (48.17) out-touching Neal (48.49), while Weitzel finished in a close third (48.89). Manuel would get the better of Weitzel again in the 50-yard freestyle, setting a pool record of 21.97.

Stanford swimmer Janet Hu posted another remarkable meet, winning the 100 backstroke (51.61) and 100 butterfly (51.93). Hu has now won multiple events in four consecutive competitions; the junior’s backstroke time was also a Cal facility best, a notable achievement considering the Golden Bears’ legacy of producing elite backstrokers.

In the meet’s most bizarre outcome, Cal senior Olympian Marina Garcia and Stanford sophomore Kim Williams tied for first in both breastroke races, posting the exact same times in the 100 yard (1:01.89) and 200 yard (2:12.16) events.

Diver Kassidy Cook, who also represented the U.S. in the Summer Games, earned 9 points for Stanford in the three-meter diving competition, although her victory was offset by sophomore phenom Phoebe LaMay’s first-place finish in one-meter diving.

Stanford enters the postseason riding the momentum of 15 straight dual meet victories dating back to last season. The team will vie for its first conference title since 2013 in Washington from Feb. 22-25, before competing for its ninth national championship in mid-March.

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

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A different track: Steve Solomon finds his way to Rio 2016 https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/28/a-different-track-steve-solomon-finds-his-way-to-rio-2016/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/28/a-different-track-steve-solomon-finds-his-way-to-rio-2016/#respond Sat, 28 May 2016 09:05:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115827 Steven Solomon’s leg can’t stop shaking. It’s not a particularly uncommon habit for most teenagers, but Solomon isn’t most teenagers. After all, the 19-year-old is just minutes away from racing in the semifinal of the 400m at the 2012 Olympic Games. “I was nervous to the point where I couldn’t even get my shoe on,” […]

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Steven Solomon’s leg can’t stop shaking.

It’s not a particularly uncommon habit for most teenagers, but Solomon isn’t most teenagers. After all, the 19-year-old is just minutes away from racing in the semifinal of the 400m at the 2012 Olympic Games.

“I was nervous to the point where I couldn’t even get my shoe on,” he recalls with a laugh. “I had to walk around a bit and give my leg a couple slaps to get going.”

Solomon eases into his starting blocks on the starter’s signal, slapping his hamstrings as he prepares himself in the sixth lane. The Aussie native has every right to be tense — he’s by far the youngest athlete in his heat and is surrounded by veterans of the sport on both sides.

“It’s amazing to be in a stadium filled with screaming people, but once the gun went I had no recollection of the crowd,” says Solomon, as he reflects on that exact moment.

“All I remember is how I ran the race.”

And it was one to remember, as Solomon came tearing down the final 100 meters in the race of his life, recording a personal-best 44.97 to qualify for the finals — the first Australian to do so in 24 years.

***

At 6-foot-1, 161-pounds, Steven Solomon isn’t particularly physically imposing; his wide smile gives him a happy-to-be-here look more apt for the face of a schoolboy than an elite sprinter.

And yet, Solomon is an absolute freak of an athlete.

“Growing up, I played every sport imaginable,” he says. “If you grow up in Australia, it’s a very strong sporting culture, and I remember my parents would be carting me from soccer to cricket to rugby to tennis practice and back to swimming lessons; just about everything.”

As a late bloomer, Solomon struggled to keep up with his bigger, faster and stronger peers, making it difficult for him to compete in his favorite sports of soccer and rugby at a high level.

Seeking something new, Solomon entered himself in the the New South Wales state championships in the 400m and 400m hurdles when he turned 16, with no proper training beyond, as he says, “a bit of athletics stuff at school for about six weeks a year.”

Out of nowhere, he won both titles — setting a state record in the hurdles — and qualified for the junior Australian championships in the process. A couple weeks later, he went on to win those as well.

“From that point on, I was like ‘Wow, this is something that I’m good at,” he says.

***

As I converse with Steve, I have to remind myself that he’s a three-time national champion in his home country, an NCAA title winner and an Olympian. His friendly Australian drawl has a way of making you forget that there are only a handful of people on this planet that can run a lap around a track faster than him.

There’s also a theme I notice repeatedly as we talk: I ask Steve a question about track, and while he answers it thoroughly, his responses always seem to converge towards the people around him who make him who he is: his friends, family, mentors, mentees.

I ask him about the best moment of his career, to date. He briefly mentions the Olympic semifinal and final — in which he placed eighth with a 45.14 time — but his dearest memory isn’t under the bright lights and in front of the 60 thousand-plus screaming fans at London’s Olympic Stadium.

“My favorite moment was actually at 3 a.m. the morning after the final race, when I finally got out of drug testing,” he reveals. “I got back to the Village, was able to get changed and met a whole lot of family and friends that had made the trip to London to support me at this little bar — the only thing we could find that was open. That was probably one of the most special moments of my life, and that was something that the sport gave to me, so I’m very grateful for that.”

When I ask Steve about his training, he talks more about his coaches and teammates than the training itself.

His sudden development as a teenager prompted his high school coach to put him in touch with Fira Dvoskina, a 76-year-old refugee from the Ukraine with an abundance of experience coaching athletics. A few years later, he began working with Dvoskina’s daughter, Iryna, whom he describes as the best technical coach in the world.  

Most surprisingly, however, is the fact that the Dvoskinas work with Paralympic athletes — Solomon is their only able-bodied disciple.   

“I train with two blind runners, a leg amputee and an athlete with cerebral palsy,” he says. “It’s been a completely new training environment, but also a real privilege, and the last year has been incredibly educational in terms of understanding how different people navigate life.”  

Solomon’s story is incredibly unusual — in a sport in which athletes typically train with the best competition they can find in order to push themselves to the next level, he finds value in his unique training circle, which humbles him regularly.  

“One of my close training partners is Scott Reardon, who lost his leg at nine years old in a tractor accident on a farm,” he says. “Seeing how he has to climb stairs, how he uses his body when he runs and swims and walks, it’s been amazing and it’s only really when I think back about it and how much I’ve learned from him, do I realize how special it is. I’ve been really fortunate — it makes you really appreciate the little things.”

Steve and I share a moment of elation when we discover that we share a favorite athlete in Roger Federer, and it’s no surprise to me that he idolizes the Swiss maestro.

Like Federer, he’s incredibly thoughtful, respectful and humble to a fault.

***

Ask Steve what his favorite thing about Stanford is, and his answer might surprise you.

“The random freshman roommate process,” he tells me earnestly. “It introduced me to my best friend, Dylan Moore.” Jaded by the standard answers involving California weather or Stanford’s pristine campus, Steve’s answer takes me aback — it’s not at all what I anticipated.

Dylan and Steve were paired together in Cedro their freshman year, although their upbringings could not have been more different. Dylan grew up a short drive from Stanford in a family of artists, before deciding to pursue both undergraduate and master’s degrees in Computer Science from Stanford.

He’s a senior on campus, already beginning his master’s degree, while Steve — who sheepishly told me he’d never heard of CS before coming to Stanford — is halfway across the world, training for the biggest sporting event in the world.

Despite their differences, the pair balance each other perfectly, indulging in each other’s wild plans and adventures. When Steve asks Dylan to come visit Australia, having planned a scuba-diving expedition, Dylan obliges, even though he’s terrified of the deep ocean; when Dylan asks Steve on a whim to run for junior class president with him, Steve’s all for it, despite already carrying the tremendous burden of being a student-athlete (their slate would go on to win the presidency).

The pair hopes to reach the peak of Mount Shasta next year — they’ve already tried and failed twice, which Dylan admits won’t be well-received news by Steve’s coaches.   

He laughs as he reenacts one of his first conversations with Steve:

“Oh, you went to the Olympics, cool! I watched on TV.”

“I mean, like I was there…racing.”

“Oh, shit.”

The initial shock wore off, however, as the pair quickly became inseparable — the excitement at being reunited next year is palpable in both of their voices.

“I think from my relationship with Dylan is where a lot of my interests grew,” Steve says. “We just both have a similar level of energy and enthusiasm towards adventure.”

***

Had it not been for Michael and Lucille Solomon and a little bit of luck, Steve Solomon may have never stepped foot on Stanford campus. As a high-school senior in 2011, he was ready to pursue an undergraduate degree in medicine in Australia, until he realized that the Australian university system would not afford him the flexibility of taking time off to train and compete ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

“It wasn’t really a mid-life crisis, given that I was only 17 at the time, but I was still pretty worried, given that everything I thought was the path I was taking seemed to lead to nowhere,” he admits. It was only when Lucille, his mother, happened to look through his bag one day after school that she discovered dozens of letters of interest from American universities.

“I had never told my parents about the letters because I was so set on what I wanted to do, and I didn’t think that it warranted much of a discussion. And then we looked into them; I looked into the US system and the NCAA and was fascinated about how strong track programs were there. I looked into the student-athlete balance and was like, ‘Yes, this is exactly what I’m looking for.’

“We don’t know too many of the US colleges down here in Australia, but when Stanford and Harvard approached me, that’s when my eyes kind of opened.”

An injury kept Steve from visiting Stanford in the spring, but his father, Michael, happened to be in California for a lecture. He came back and said, “Steve, if you get accepted into Stanford it’s a no-brainer; this place is unbelievable.”

Steve signed his letter of intent without stepping foot on campus and showed up on The Farm in September of 2012.

Steve’s Stanford track career has been somewhat limited — he took this entire year off from school to go home and train — but one moment sticks out from the rest: the 2014 NCAA indoor distance medley relay championship race.

Having qualified for the 400 on his own, he faced a decision to make: Either run for the individual title, in which he would be entirely accountable for winning or losing, or put his trust in teammates in the DMR. Never one to put himself first, Steve chose the relay, running a scorching 45.75 400m leg to help Stanford win the title by nearly three seconds over second-place Oregon.

“When you get the opportunity to run relays, which is quite rare, and the opportunity to run with a team of friends, and to do that for a school that I love so much it became quite an easy decision,” he says. “I knew I would have further opportunities to represent myself ahead.”

“To come away with the win in quite an emphatic style was really special, and it unbelievable to be able to share the feeling with Marco [Bertolotti], Luke [Lefebure] and Michael [Atchoo]. That was my first major relay win at Stanford and beyond, and it was a lot of fun.”

***

Steve hasn’t officially qualified for the Rio Olympics yet — he missed the 45.40 cut-off by a 10th of a second in a recent race — but he still has several chances in the next few months as he prepares his body for peak form come August.

After achieving his goal of reaching the final in London, Steve allowed himself to take in the moment and enjoy the experience. Having dealt with nagging injuries since then, he has had to prepare much harder and smarter in order to get his body ready. This time, his own expectations will be set much higher.

“Part of the reason the Olympics is the Olympics is because of the excitement of the unknown. Now that I’ve got a little bit more of a grip over that, I hope I can put some good performances in on the track and pick up from where I left off in London, and run really well for myself, my country and all those supporting me.”

An Aussie man hasn’t won a gold medal in a running event in 48 years. As sports like rugby, cricket and tennis continue to dominate the Australian sports scene, Steve is part of a small, elite group that seeks to keep the nation relevant in the sprinting world.  

I’m curious as to why Steve loves the 400 so much — it seems like a grueling race, long enough to require a high level of stamina and endurance, yet short enough to still be a flat-out sprint. When I ask him about it, it’s the first time during our conversation I hear his voice take a more serious tone.

“I love the 400 because it’s not a soft man’s race. To run the 400 you know you’re going to go into pain and you’re going to put your body through a lot of unpleasant things,” he says matter-of-factly.

“Knowing that draws a certain type of athlete to compete in it. I love pushing myself hard. I’m not someone who’s going to go for a run and stop running when I can say I hit 15 miles. I want to run fast. I want to run to the point where my body wants to throw up to get rid of the waste products its producing.”

In that brief moment, 400-meter Olympian Steve Solomon switches on, and he’s sure as hell not someone I’d want to mess with on a running track.

***

Track and field is a fascinating sport. It boils athleticism down to the most simple physical tasks: Who can run the fastest, jump the highest, throw the furthest. And yet, it struggles to stay relevant in today’s social media age, when slam dunks and big hits are prioritized over pole vaults and hurdles.

Track and field — at least in the US — has become a sport where only the brashest and fastest short sprinters are likely to receive any media attention. Ask the average Joe to name a track athlete apart from Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay or Lolo Jones, and you’re likely to come up empty-handed.

That suits Steven Solomon just fine. When I ask him about his goals in the sport, he doesn’t speak of medals, championships or fame, instead answering simply, “I want to be able to finish my career knowing that I couldn’t have gone faster.”

His thoughts wander past track and field, to life after the starting blocks and finish lines. Steve went on an aid trip to Tonga when he was 15 with his dad, who is an orthopedic surgeon. He describes how the instant he scrubbed into his father’s operations, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. As a human biology major at Stanford, he intends to go to medical school after he calls it quits on his track career.

“I’ve really enjoyed the detour that sports has taken me on, but I’m also very much looking forward to my dream of becoming a doctor and helping my community,” he says.

For though Rio looms large ahead, Solomon’s course extends far beyond the finish line.

 

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

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Q&A with the Bryan Brothers, tennis’ best duo https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/28/de-nr-qa-with-the-bryan-brothers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/28/de-nr-qa-with-the-bryan-brothers/#respond Sat, 28 May 2016 09:01:23 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115753 In the world of professional men’s tennis, there isn’t much that former Stanford standouts Bob and Mike Bryan haven’t achieved together. The identical twins have won every major doubles title in the sport — 16 Grand Slams, 36 Masters Tournaments, four World Tour finals, a Davis Cup and an Olympic gold medal. The duo began their […]

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In the world of professional men’s tennis, there isn’t much that former Stanford standouts Bob and Mike Bryan haven’t achieved together. The identical twins have won every major doubles title in the sport — 16 Grand Slams, 36 Masters Tournaments, four World Tour finals, a Davis Cup and an Olympic gold medal. The duo began their careers at Stanford  in 1996, winning two NCAA team titles and a doubles title (Bob would also win a singles title, completing the rare “Triple Crown”) before leaving Stanford in 1998 to pursue professional careers. Eighteen years and 112 ATP titles later, the brothers are undoubtedly the best doubles team to ever grace a tennis court. At 38 years of age, they will likely compete in their last Olympic Games this summer. The Daily spoke with the Bryan Brothers about their twin rivalries, renowned musical talents and (somewhat) impending retirements as part of its Road to Rio Olympic coverage.

 

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Tell me a little about what it was like coming to Stanford — a mecca of college tennis — as freshmen back in 1996.  

Bob Bryan (BB): Of course we were very excited. We had dreamed of coming to The Farm and playing for the famed Stanford tennis team since we were little kids.  

Mike Bryan (MB): Yes, there was a big tournament about 30 minutes from our home at Ojai and it always has featured the Pac-12 tennis teams. Since we were 5 or 6, we always attended that tournament and saw Stanford stars like Martin Blackman, Scott Davis, Jeff Tarango, Dan Goldie, Jared Palmer, Alex O’Brien and Jonathan Stark.  

BB: We went to the NCAA Championships that were held in Los Angeles in 1990 — we idolized the Cardinal team, and we rooted like crazy for them as they won the title over Tennessee.  We even wrote a little rap poem and gave it to them. When Coach Dick Gould was recruiting us in 1996, he took out the Stanford scrapbook from that year and pulled out that very little tune we came up with.  

MB: That amazed us. And it brought back a great memory.

 

TSD: Presumably you were in different dorms — what was it like being away from each other for the first time?  

MB: Yes, we were kind of shocked to not be able to live together as we had for the past 18 years. We tried to get in the same room, but the University was very firm on that.

BB: We both liked Mike’s roomie, James, and he remains a close friend to this day. And truth be told, within two weeks, I got an extra mattress on the floor and moved in with Mike and James in a very tiny dorm room. We all had a great time that year. Please don’t tell any of the Stanford officials that we broke that rule.  

MB: And another funny thing: After we turned pro in 1998, we were playing the U.S. Open in late August and we got a call in our hotel room in New York from the Collins twins — Jarron and Jason — who were then basketball stars at Stanford and would go on to play in the NBA. We enjoyed talking to them and telling them about Stanford and of course, they said, “Hey, what’s the deal about us not being able to room together?! We’re twins like you guys and we don’t like that.”

BB: We’re not sure how they worked it out, but we are still good friends with those guys. They’ve come to some of our matches through the years and we always have a good time. They always yell out from the stands, “Hey, we’re the all-time greatest twins that went to Stanford, not you two!”

 

TSD: What are your best memories from your days at Stanford?  

BB: We had a wonderful two years on The Farm and we have so, so many great memories — from the classroom, from the campus, from our fraternity (SAE), from going to watch all the other sports on campus and getting to know the other athletes — like Kerri Walsh Jennings on the women’s volleyball team and so many of the football and baseball and basketball guys and gals.  We went to their games and many of them came and rooted us on in our matches.

MB: We made so many friends there, and, of course, that is what you remember.

BB: And, without a doubt, all our tennis practices with the legendary coach Gould and assistant coach John Whitlinger were great, as were the trips and the matches. Without a doubt, the best memories we have are winning the NCAA team title our freshman and sophomore seasons before were turned pro. Those are moments we will never forget.  

MB: We were blessed with the two best coaches you could have, and we were lucky to have great teammates like Paul Goldstein, Ryan Wolters, Grant Elliott, Kevin Kim, Geoff Abrams, Misha Palecek, Charlie Hoeveler and Ali Ansari.

 

TSD: What is your relationship with coach Gould and former teammate/now coach Goldstein like?

MB: Our dad had always been a friend and fan of coach Gould’s and he told us before we went to Stanford to watch him and learn from him.

BB: He said that you’ll learn more from coach Gould than any professor that you have. Our dad admired his people skills and his inspirational coaching.

MB: We had so much fun, and, of course, learned so much about tennis and winning and losing and about life from coach Gould and coach Whit.

BB: We consider Coach Gould not only a leader and great coach, but he has also become a wonderful friend and supporter through our post-Stanford days.  We still hear from him most every week.

MB: We love the guy.

BB: As for Paul, he was two years older than us and was a junior when we came in as freshmen. He took us under his wing and showed us the ropes around campus and with our classes and the fraternity, and, of course, with the team. He helped us in so many ways and we’ll always be appreciative. He was our captain and our leader. We learned lots from him too.

MB: Paul is a great guy and he is a winner. We are happy to see him as the head coach now and we think he is doing a great job. The team upset No. 14 Northwestern to reach the Sweet 16 this past season.

BB: Paul set all kinds of records at Stanford and he did well on the pro tour. I agree with Mike that he is a winner and also a great speaker and overall class act. We remain close friends and would do anything for him.

 

TSD: What’s it like to play for your country at the Olympics and Davis Cup — any different from when you’re on tour playing for yourselves?  Are there any parallels with what it was like to play for your school?

MB: We love the team thing. We were on over 25 teams before coming to Stanford. We were very proud to play for Stanford and we knew coming in that the bar was set high — the expectation was to win the NCAA Team Championship each of our two years there, which we were able to accomplish.

BB: We really both feel that our two years at Stanford were the best two years of our lives.  Of course, we have loved being on the United States Davis Cup team for the past 14 years are always proud to play for and represent the United States and we were so happy to win the Davis Cup for the USA in 2007 with our teammates Andy Roddick and James Blake.

MB: By the way, our captain was Patrick McEnroe, who also played for Stanford and who also admires coach Gould.

BB: And we’ll never forget how after we clinched the last match in winning the Davis Cup title against Russia in Portland in December of 2007, all the guys on the bench came running out and jumped over the net and we all got in a big circle and started jumping up and down. And that lasted for about 20 to 30 seconds. Now compare that to winning the NCAAs — when Mike clinched the NCAA title in the finals against Georgia in Athens, the whole team mobbed him out on the middle court there, and, in no time, there were 200 guys from Stanford in a huge and high dog pile, and the celebrating went on for several minutes.

MB: Nothing can compare to the thrill of winning the NCAAs.  We love the team thing, and we’ll never forget that day at the UGA Stadium.

 

TSD: Take us back to the 2012 Games in London. You guys had some incredibly close matches, especially in the early rounds, on your way to the gold medal. What was it like to finally break through and win the gold on your third try, completing the elusive career Golden Slam? The Olympics aren’t often considered as highly as the Grand Slams in tennis, but where does that win rank for you?

BB: Our whole goal for 2012 was to win the gold.  We had been so disappointed to only reach the quarters in Athens, and only get the bronze medal in Beijing, and we were totally focused on that gold medal.

MB: It was the only goal we had set as little boys that we had not achieved.  

BB: And the fact that the tournament was to be held at the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon made it even more special. We were slated to play the Swiss team of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka early, but they lost to a team from Israel — Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram — and in the quarters we beat the Israelis in straight sets. In the semis we beat the French tandem of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet, 6-4, 6-4.

MB: We had a tough match in the finals against two big servers and, again, a French team — Jo-Willie Tsonga and Michael Llodra.  They, of course, were tough on grass too. We’ll never forget that 6-4, 7-6 score and the huge thrill of winning the gold. On match point, Bob climbed halfway up the scoreboard to send a lob back and we ended up winning the point after a long and tough rally. We played well, and we were jacked about it.

BB: You know, tennis fans think that Wimbledon or the U.S. Open or the Davis Cup are the biggest titles to win, but to the average man on the street, winning an Olympic Gold seems to be the biggest thing.

MB: And for the next three months, we took those medals everywhere with us and kept ‘em in our tennis bags. Thousands and thousands of people came up to us and wanted to see and hold the medal and get their picture taken with it.

 

TSD: Your run of success is unparalleled.  How have you guys kept it going so long?  And how do you stay motivated when there really isn’t much in the sport you haven’t done?  

BB: Yes, we have reached every single goal that we set for ourselves on our list on the refrigerator when we were little tiny boys.

MB: Our parents always had us print our our short-term and long-term goals each year.  They were big believers in that and so are we, and we still do it.

BB: We are passionate about the great game of tennis, and we love playing and competing to this day — even though we have been playing for over 33 years now. And we just really like playing doubles together.

MB: We appreciate all the support we have received from the fans — not only in the U.S., but all over the world.  We have done our best to give back. Our parents and coach Gould certainly instilled that in us. We love what our Bryan Brothers Foundation has done to help deserving kids and kids programs through the years. We are proud to have donated over $700,000 to help youngsters in SoCal and across the nation.

BB: And we still like doing junior clinics and interacting with kids and their tennis and their music and their dreams.

 

TSD: Do you ever get tired of each other?

BB: Sometimes, but very not often. We actually get along pretty well. And if we are separated on different parts of the country, we end up calling each other about three or four times a day.

MB: The media is always trying to get a story of the Bryan Brothers not getting along, but it is very rare indeed.  

BB:  And not only do we like playing doubles together, but we also love playing music together. Our Bryan Brothers Band plays at about 15 big charity events and tournaments throughout the year. Jim Bogios, the famed drummer of the Counting Crows plays with our band lots. We have a blast doin’ it and have drawn some pretty huge crowds over the past few years, and we are blessed having some amazing musicians and singers in our group.

 

TSD: You said in 2013 that you’d like to retire after Rio … has anything changed in that regard? Will there be one last U.S. Open?

BB: Yeah, we said after we won London that we’d like to play Rio and then maybe call it a day. But now that it is just around the corner, we might like to stay on a big longer. Maybe one more year?

MB: Maybe two.

BB: We have been pretty fortunate to be injury-free most of our careers. We have hardly ever had to default a match.

 

TSD: What are you most excited for upon retirement?

MB: I don’t think we can say we are excited about retirement. We are having too much fun and we love what we do.  Look, nobody likes all the travel and all the time you have to spend on the road and in airplanes, airports and hotels, but all in all, it has been a great journey.

BB: And once again, we owe so much to Stanford and coach Gould and coach Whit.

 

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

Click here for more stories from our Road to Rio Olympic coverage.

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Women’s tennis edges Oklahoma State for 18th national title https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/womens-tennis-edges-oklahoma-state-for-18th-national-title/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/womens-tennis-edges-oklahoma-state-for-18th-national-title/#respond Wed, 25 May 2016 09:45:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115680 Down a set and facing match point, junior Taylor Davidson and the Stanford Cardinal’s hopes of an NCAA title were quickly fading. On Court 2, Oklahoma State’s No. 44-ranked Vladica Babic had a formidable 6-3, 5-4 lead over Davidson, who found herself having to rely on a serve that had been shaky throughout the tournament. […]

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Down a set and facing match point, junior Taylor Davidson and the Stanford Cardinal’s hopes of an NCAA title were quickly fading.

On Court 2, Oklahoma State’s No. 44-ranked Vladica Babic had a formidable 6-3, 5-4 lead over Davidson, who found herself having to rely on a serve that had been shaky throughout the tournament. At 40-40, no advantage, Babic was just a point away from securing a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 lead for the Cowgirls.  

Davidson hit a big first serve, winning the 16-shot rally, and ultimately the match, as the Cardinal (20-5, 9-1 Pac-12) mounted an improbable comeback to win the 2016 NCAA Championship.

“Especially when it’s been three years since the last one, it’s very satisfying,” said head coach Lele Forood of the team’s first title since 2013 and its 18th in program history.

The nail-biting final ended a wild tournament run in which Stanford repeatedly defied the odds to stay alive. Despite their lowly 15th-seed, the Cardinal had snuck their way through the tournament with a series of close victories over Texas A&M, No. 2 Florida, No. 10 Michigan and No. 6 Vanderbilt. Stanford had suffered bouts of inconsistent play, but in every round, key players stepped up to lead Stanford to the NCAA final.

On the other side of the draw, 12th-seed Oklahoma State (29-5, 9-0 Big-12) seemed to be enjoying a nearly perfect tournament run. The team was riding an 18-match winning streak and had upset No. 5 Georgia, No. 4 Ohio State and No. 1 Cal on the way to the final.

Oklahoma State also had a massive home-court advantage in Tulsa, just an hour east of the Cowgirls’ home in Stillwater. Approximately 700 locals, proudly sporting traffic-cone orange fan gear, filled the Michael D. Case Tennis Center to support the local favorite’s attempt at a program-first NCAA title.

When Stanford dropped the doubles point, it seemed like the Cardinal would be limited to solid but not outstanding play yet again. In the semifinal, Oklahoma State had vanquished No. 1 Cal’s doubles, and their doubles strength was on full display again in the final.

After a quick win on Court 3, Oklahoma State jumped to an imposing 4-1 lead on Court 1 and thwarted a late comeback from Stanford’s junior duo of Davidson and Caroline Doyle, ultimately winning 6-3 to secure the always-crucial doubles point for the Cowgirls.

Oklahoma State came out on fire in singles play, dictating points and keeping Stanford players running corner to corner on the defensive. Stanford claimed only two out of six first sets, as Doyle and Hardebeck each took the first set 6-4 on Courts 3 and 4, respectively.

No. 100 Hardebeck stayed in control to defeat Oklahoma State’s Kelsey Laurente 6-4, 6-4, tying the dual match score at 1-1.

The only remaining starter from Stanford’s 2013 title run ended her illustrious career on a high note, winning 21 of her last 24 matches for the Cardinal.

“She’s had a phenomenal season,” said Forood of Hardebeck’s final year. “It was such a pleasure to see that we were going to get such an incredible performance by her this year, because it started to make things more possible for us seeing ourselves as potential champions…Today she was first on the court with a win for us, and that was really important.”

While Hardebeck played at the high level that has made her a major contributor this season, the rest of the Cardinal’s matches were full of ups and downs.

No. 25-ranked Zhao, the 2015 NCAA singles runner-up, was poised to force a third set after breaking Oklahoma’s Katarina Adamovic for 5-5, saving two match points in the process. However, Adamovic, ranked No. 47 nationally, closed the match 7-5 to put Oklahoma State up 2-1 in the dual match tally.

On Court 2, Davidson had trouble stepping forward during rallies and seemed fatigued from over a week of intense play. However, she found a way to break Babic at 5-5 and held for 7-5 to force a third set.

“We had lost first sets at Nos. 5 and 6 at that point, but I really felt good that we were going to get ourselves back into those matches,” said Forood. “We needed to find some other wins. That was very pivotal, Taylor’s match.”

Stanford’s shot at victory remained in doubt as Oklahoma State’s Viktoriya Lushkova forced a third set and won in convincing fashion against No. 67-ranked Doyle on Court 3. Lushkova, ranked No. 66 in the country, had amassed a 17-match winning streak coming into the match, while Doyle was mired in a downturn and had struggled to only one singles win in the NCAA tournament so far.

Though Doyle’s 6-4, 4-6, 1-6 loss made the score 3-1 in favor of Oklahoma State, the tides of the match had begun to turn. Davidson, Caroline Lampl and Melissa Lord had all gained early breaks of serve in their respective third sets, with Stanford needing all three matches for the victory.

On Court 5, freshman Caroline Lampl seized the momentum after being edged 4-6 in the first set. Lampl rediscovered her characteristic aggressive shot-making in the second, taking the set 6-3.

In the final set, Lampl worked her way to a 5-3 lead, going up 40-15 on her opponent’s serve to earn three match points. She would need just one, however, as Stresnakova’s final backhand flew wide to make the match score 3-2 in favor of the Cowgirls.

The win concluded a perfect 5-0 postseason for Lampl (her first match was uncompleted), including three-set wins over Michigan and Vanderbilt. The freshman was a phenomenal presence for the Cardinal at the bottom of the lineup all season, amassing a 30-5 record, 10 three-set wins and seven match-clinching wins, all team-bests.

With just two matches left, Stanford seemed to be in a promising position, as both Lord and Davidson took the court to serve for their respective matches.

After losing a tight first-set tiebreaker, Lord subsequently dominated the Cowgirls’ Carla Tur Mari to take a 6-2, 5-2 advantage in the second and third sets on Court 6.

Lord pieced together a brilliant final service game for the Cardinal, hitting two cross-court forehand winners to go up 40-15 and seal the match with an unreturnable first serve up the tee that evened the dual match score at 3-3.

The ever-calm freshman was clinically efficient throughout the postseason, going 6-0 and dropping just two sets en route to the final.

A mass of fans shifted to Court 2, where Davidson and Babic were locked in a third-set battle that would decide the national champion. Having already squandered a break, Davidson found herself up 5-4 with a second chance to serve for the match.

Unforced errors coupled with patient play from Babic quickly put Davidson in a 0-40 hole, as she dropped the game on a netted backhand to hand Babic her third straight game.

Having to regroup quickly under immense pressure wasn’t a foreign situation for Davidson, however. The junior had battled through four consecutive three-set matches in the tournament to help her team reach the final. Against Florida in the quarterfinals, Davidson had thrown away match points on consecutive double faults at 5-2 before coming right back to break at 5-3 and send Stanford through to the semis.

“It’s happened plenty of times now this tournament,” said Davidson of being the last out on court. “I kind of had a feeling that it was down to me.”

Physical exhaustion was also a factor, given the grueling postseason schedule that had the team play six matches in the span of 11 days, including the semifinal against Vanderbilt less than 24 hours before.

“I started cramping a little bit [at 5-2], and things didn’t feel as good,” she said after the match. “I knew if I could just stay in the match and make [Babic] hit a lot of balls, I was tougher than her.”

That was exactly the strategy Davidson adopted in the final games, playing superb defense at 5-5 to earn the break of serve and a third opportunity to serve out the match.

The final game was not lacking in drama, as Babic got ahead early and threatened to step in on Davidson’s second serve at 15-30. However, a perfectly placed Davidson kick-serve up the tee that clipped the inside of the line and could not be returned into play by Babic evened the score at 30-30. It was one of the most pivotal points of the match: Had Davidson — who had seen ups and downs on her serve all day — lost the point, her opponent would have had three chances at sending the match to a tiebreaker.

Instead, after a backhand that sailed long from Babic, Davidson found herself up 40-30 with two championship points on her racquet. A forced error evened the score at 40-40, making the most pressure-filled moment of the match (which switched to no-ad scoring for the first time this year).

After a sharp return from Babic, the players exchanged a back-and-forth rally during which Davidson found herself on the defensive for nearly the entirety of the point, hitting a number of slow slices and daring her opponent to miss. The tactic finally paid off when Babic sent a short, low Davidson slice wide on the 26th shot of the point, as Davidson collapsed and was mobbed by the entire Stanford team.

Davidson’s win was all the more remarkable considering her comeback in the second set: Had she not battled back from down 1-4, and saved a match point at 4-5, the Cardinal would have very likely been the ones clapping politely as Oklahoma State hoisted its first title.

“Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking, ‘OK, I need to come back and try to win this match,’” said Davidson.

“I was thinking, ‘Stay on the court and maybe [Zhao] can split sets…Maybe it will help someone else relax a little bit and play better.”

It was a fitting end to the season for Davidson, who unexpectedly anchored the team at the No. 1 spot early in the year while Zhao competed on the professional circuit. In the NCAA Tournament, she stepped up yet again as Stanford battled its way to victory.

Stanford’s 18th title — more than all other programs combined since the tournament was introduced in 1982 — further cements the program as the winningest team in the sport.

 

Contact Alexa Corse at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu and Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Women’s tennis: a season in review https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/womens-tennis-a-season-in-review/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/womens-tennis-a-season-in-review/#respond Wed, 25 May 2016 09:36:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115690 Miss out on Stanford women’s tennis’ wild 2015-2016 season? Relive some of the team’s most notable moments here… Dropped under .500 for the first time in program history, at 1-2 in February Dropped to a season-low fifth in the Pac-12 standings midway through the season Dropped to a season-low ranking of No. 23 nationally in […]

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Miss out on Stanford women’s tennis’ wild 2015-2016 season? Relive some of the team’s most notable moments here…

  • Dropped under .500 for the first time in program history, at 1-2 in February
  • Dropped to a season-low fifth in the Pac-12 standings midway through the season
  • Dropped to a season-low ranking of No. 23 nationally in March
  • Turned the season around with a 4-3 upset over No. 7 Florida in late February, which marked Zhao’s return to the team
  • Beat No. 1 Cal 4-3 in the final match of the regular season to rob the Bears of a perfect season and throw the Pac-12 standings into chaos
  • Beat USC in a winner-take-all match to clinch the Pac-12 title
  • Finished the season on a 10-match winning streak
  • Successfully defended match points against Michigan (quarterfinals) and Oklahoma State (finals) in the NCAA tournament— had the team lost either point, there would be no NCAA title
  • Taylor Davidson played five consecutive three-set matches in the tournament and provided three clinchers (Texas A&M, Florida, Oklahoma State)
  • Won 14 of last 16 tournament matches when seeded lower than opponent
  • Became the lowest seed, at No. 15, to ever to win an NCAA Championship, breaking the record set by the 2013 Cardinal team (No. 12)
  • Only two Stanford classes have graduated without an NCAA title since the championship was introduced in 1982
  • Marked their 33rd quarterfinal appearance, 30th semifinal appearance, 24th final appearance and 18th title in program history — more titles than all other teams combined

 

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

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Women’s tennis upsets Gators, moves on to 33rd NCAA quarterfinal https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/20/womens-tennis-upsets-gators-moves-on-to-33rd-ncaa-quarterfinal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/20/womens-tennis-upsets-gators-moves-on-to-33rd-ncaa-quarterfinal/#respond Fri, 20 May 2016 08:29:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115497 Yet another chapter was written in one of the great rivalries in college sports on Thursday, as 15th-seeded Stanford women’s tennis (17-5, 9-1 Pac-12) knocked off second-seed Florida (23-3, 13-0 SEC) to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, OK.  Three times the teams have met in the postseason since 2009, and […]

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Yet another chapter was written in one of the great rivalries in college sports on Thursday, as 15th-seeded Stanford women’s tennis (17-5, 9-1 Pac-12) knocked off second-seed Florida (23-3, 13-0 SEC) to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, OK. 

Three times the teams have met in the postseason since 2009, and three times the final score has read 4-3 either way. This year’s meeting was no different, as junior Taylor Davidson provided the clincher for the Cardinal with the score tied 3-3 in a dramatic dual match that could not have possibly been any closer.

Stanford found itself a step behind from the get-go, dropping the doubles point with losses at the Nos. 1 and 3 spots. While play began outdoors, rain forced play to move inside after nearly an hour delay. The pause did not halt the Gators’ momentum, as third-ranked Brooke Austin/Kourtney Keegan overwhelmed fifth-ranked Taylor Davidson/Caroline Doyle en route to a comfortable 6-2 victory at the top spot, as the Stanford pair of Krista Hardebeck and Caroline Lampl fell on Court 3.

While a 0-1 deficit heading into singles play against one of the deepest singles lineups in the country might be daunting to most teams, it was a position the Cardinal were all too familiar with. The team had dropped the doubles point to the Gators in their non-conference match in late February, before coming storming back to win, 4-3, and had repeated the feat against No. 1 Cal for its biggest wins of the season.

The Cardinal gained a quick point from their stalwart No. 1, Carol Zhao, following a comprehensive straight-set victory over Brooke Austin, the No. 4 player in the nation. Zhao — ranked only 25th in the country, due in part to her absence for a large portion of the season — improved her record to 12-1 against Florida over the course of her career.

Freshman Caroline Lampl cruised to victory at the No. 5 spot, putting the seal on her match in style with a massive forehand down-the-line winner on match point to win, 6-4, 6-4 and put the Stanford up 2-1. Despite taking the lead, the tide of the match was clearly in Florida’s favor, as the Gators had taken the first set in all remaining matches, including a pair of tiebreak wins on Courts 2 and 3.

The Gators would regain the lead following Brianna Morgan’s emphatic 7-6(4), 6-3 victory over No. 40 Caroline Doyle at the No. 3 spot, and No. 40 Kourtney Keegan’s three-set victory over No. 100 Krista Hardebeck at the No. 4 spot, leaving Stanford in must-win situations on Courts 2 and 6.

Perhaps the most pivotal singles match occurred at the No. 6 spot, between Stanford freshman Melissa Lord and Florida sophomore Anna Danilina, the No. 63 player in the country, who had already defeated Lord twice this season. After taking a set lead, Danilina seemingly had the match on her racket, serving at 5-4, 30-15 in the second set.

Lord recovered spectacularly, however, moving her opponent and limiting her mistakes to break and force a tiebreaker, where she won seven points straight to force the third. With her opponent mentally shaken in the final set, Lord raced out to a 5-2 lead, securing the win with a huge first serve up the tee on a pivotal deuce point (no advantage).

With the dual tied at three matches apiece, all eyes turned to Davidson on Court 2 for the second time this week, as the junior had clinched the team’s second-round match against Texas A&M just four days earlier. After losing the first set in a tiebreak to No. 11 Belinda Woolcock, Davidson had come roaring back to win the second set 6-3 and even the match, with the third set deciding which team would advance.

The enormity of the moment was clearly at play in the final set, as the players broke each other back and forth in the first five games. With both squads looking on and exploding after every point, Davidson finally consolidated her break with a hold of serve to take a 4-2 lead, and immediately broke again to make it 5-2.

The drama didn’t end there, though — at 40-30, Davidson threw away two match points with consecutive double faults, granting Woolcock a gift back into the match. Davidson recovered impressively in the next game, however, gaining 3 more match points following a lengthy rally at 15-30. A wide groundstroke from Woolcock finally sealed the match, sending the Cardinal into a frenzy as they mobbed Davidson for the second consecutive match.

“I think having short-term memory in that situation helps, because I did not want to serve [Woolcock] the game. I think that I had broken her three times earlier in that set so I had a lot of confidence,” said Davidson of the way the match ended.

“There really is no choice in that situation, unless you just want to go down in flames and I don’t want that regret for the rest of my life.”

Despite struggling early in the season, even dropping under .500 for the first time in program history, everything has come together in the past month for the Cardinal, culminating in yet another classic in the Stanford-Florida rivalry.

“Playing Florida is always an amazing experience. They took it to us in doubles, but we had great spirit, heart, and attitude in singles to come back and win,” said head coach Lele Forood.

The Cardinal have weapons across the board: Zhao has shown time and again that she can beat anyone in the country, Hardebeck is still in peak form, having won 19 of her last 21 and Davidson and Lord have displayed a mental fortitude without which the team’s season would already be over.

With Florida — the highest seed on Stanford’s side of the bracket — sent packing, the team is now a serious threat to make a run at the 18th title in program history. And if anyone on the college tennis scene wasn’t paying attention to the 15th-seed from out West, they surely are now.  

The Cardinal will next take on 10th-seeded Michigan in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Tulsa.

 
Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu. Shame Alexa Philippou for betting against the Cardinal at aphil723 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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All or nothing for baseball on final road trip https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/20/all-or-nothing-for-baseball-on-final-road-trip/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/20/all-or-nothing-for-baseball-on-final-road-trip/#respond Fri, 20 May 2016 08:25:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115473 Riding the momentum of five wins in its last seven games, the Stanford baseball team (26-21, 11-13 Pac-12) will look to keep its season alive this weekend as it makes its final Pac-12 road trip of the season to face Washington (29-18, 14-10). While the Cardinal are currently ninth in the Pac-12, the conference standings […]

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Riding the momentum of five wins in its last seven games, the Stanford baseball team (26-21, 11-13 Pac-12) will look to keep its season alive this weekend as it makes its final Pac-12 road trip of the season to face Washington (29-18, 14-10).

While the Cardinal are currently ninth in the Pac-12, the conference standings are packed tightly together: With a series sweep in Seattle, Stanford would overtake the Huskies, who currently sit in second place, giving the team a postseason-worthy resume before its final series of the year against Oregon.

Achieving such a feat will be far from easy against a Washington team that has been solid across the board this season. While the team lacks a marquee non-conference win, it has collected series wins over Arizona, Oregon, ASU and USC, all of whom are currently ranked in the top half of the conference.

The Huskies have shown signs of weakness as of late, however, dropping two of three to bottom-ranked Washington State. Pitching consistency has been a slight issue for the Washington recently: Friday night starter Noah Bremer has faltered in his last two starts, giving up 11 runs (9 earned) on 16 hits across the two games. Fellow starter Joe DeMers has also struggled mightily this season, hobbling his way to a 6.46 ERA, the worst mark in the conference (among pitchers with over 45 innings worked).

Stanford should have a considerable chance to steal the Friday night game with the help of right-hander Tristan Beck, who has delivered for the Cardinal throughout the season. The freshman ranks fifth in the Pac-12 among starters with a 2.65 ERA and has helped Stanford top the conference in most pitching metrics.

Run support has been an area of weakness all season, with the team batting a mediocre .256. However, sophomores Quinn Brodey and Matt Winaker have been bright spots offensively as of late and are currently riding 11-game and six-game hitting streaks, respectively. Meanwhile, junior Alex Dunlap will look to extend his streak of 18 straight games reaching base this weekend.

The Stanford bats will have to connect early and often for the team to keep up with Washington, as the Huskies hit a solid .279. Equally problematic in this regard is Huskies reliever Troy Rallings, who has been absolutely phenomenal this season. Rallings leads the nation in ERA (0.65) and is second in saves (15). When the senior is on, he is virtually un-hittable, and he threw over 22 innings straight of scoreless ball at one point in the season.

The series opens in Seattle on Friday at 5 p.m., and will be continued on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 12 p.m.  

 

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

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Brennan Scarlett signs with Houston after going undrafted https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/02/brennan-scarlett-signs-with-houston-after-going-undrafted/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/02/brennan-scarlett-signs-with-houston-after-going-undrafted/#respond Mon, 02 May 2016 11:28:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114555 Defensive end Brennan Scarlett was the latest Stanford player to be scooped up as an undrafted free agent, signing with the Houston Texans on Saturday night. The fifth-year senior became the ninth Cardinal to make an NFL team this week, joining former teammates Devon Cajuste, Kevin Anderson and Aziz Shittu as post-draft signees.  Scarlett became the Cardinal’s […]

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Defensive end Brennan Scarlett was the latest Stanford player to be scooped up as an undrafted free agent, signing with the Houston Texans on Saturday night. The fifth-year senior became the ninth Cardinal to make an NFL team this week, joining former teammates Devon Cajuste, Kevin Anderson and Aziz Shittu as post-draft signees. 

Scarlett became the Cardinal’s first ever graduate transfer after joining the team from Cal for his final year of eligibility last season. The four-star recruit out of Portland faced a slew of injuries during his time in Berkeley, suffering season-ending injuries in 2011 and 2014 and sitting out the 2013 season entirely.

Despite playing in only 17 games in his four years as a Golden Bear, Scarlett (a Cal team captain) recorded 54 tackles, including 9.0 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles, before transferring to Stanford to pursue a Master’s degree in management science and engineering.                           

The fifth-year was able to stay healthy in his 2015 campaign for the Cardinal, playing in all 14 games and recording 37 tackles and a team-leading 5.5 sacks en route to an All-Pac-12 honorable mention. After the Cardinal lost junior lineman Harrison Phillips to a torn ACL in the first game of the season, Scarlett’s presence became especially crucial, as he anchored the defensive line rotation along with senior Shittu and sophomore Solomon Thomas.

While Scarlett’s limited college sample size made him an unlikely draft pick, a solid pro day was enough to get noticed as an undrafted prospect. He posted a 4.75 40-yard dash, impressive for his size (6-foot-4, 264 pounds), and knocked out 25 reps on the 225-pound bench press, numbers that would have placed him among the top performers in both categories at the NFL Combine.

Making the Texans’ 53-man roster will be no easy task, however, as the team features an elite defensive front headlined by three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt. While Houston did lose starting defensive end Jared Crick to free agency, Scarlett will have to compete with a number of established veterans as well as at least two other undrafted free agents at the position in order to gain a spot come September.

 

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

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San Francisco takes Joshua Garnett in first round of NFL Draft https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/29/san-francisco-takes-joshua-garnett-in-first-round-of-nfl-draft/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/29/san-francisco-takes-joshua-garnett-in-first-round-of-nfl-draft/#comments Fri, 29 Apr 2016 12:24:39 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114448 Former Stanford offensive guard Joshua Garnett was selected by the San Francisco 49ers with the 28th pick in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft on Thursday, becoming the 22nd first-round pick in Cardinal history.

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Former Stanford offensive guard Joshua Garnett was selected by the San Francisco 49ers with the 28th pick in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft on Thursday, becoming the 22nd first-round pick in Cardinal history.

The 49ers traded picks with the Kansas City Chiefs to move back up into the first round and select Garnett after having selected Oregon defensive lineman DeForest Buckner with the seventh overall pick earlier in the round. Garnett joins former Tunnel Workers David DeCastro and Andrus Peat as Stanford’s last three first-round picks dating back to 2012.

“It’s definitely great to know [the 49ers] believed in me like that,” Garnett told the San Jose Mercury News on Thursday evening. “I’ve got to put in work to prove them right [that] they made the right decision.”

Garnett will look to make an immediate impact for the depleted 49ers, who lost former guards Mike Iupati and Alex Boone to free agency in the past two offseasons. He will likely have the opportunity to compete for a starting job opposite fellow guard Zane Beadles, who joined San Francisco from the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this offseason.

The ties between Garnett and the 49ers’ organization have long been apparent, as first-year head coach Chip Kelly attended Stanford’s Pro Day in March and recruited the Washington native while he was the head coach at the University of Oregon, Stanford’s archrival in the Pac-12 North.

“I have personal knowledge of [Garnett], just from going against him [while at Oregon],” Kelly said. “We thought he was the best interior run-blocker in the draft… He’s a big, physical player that can bend really well for a big guy.”

Garnett’s father, Scott Garnett, played in the league as a nose tackle and also enjoyed a brief stint in San Francisco. Josh’s interest in the 49ers was clear, as he attended the organization’s Pro Day earlier this month, an event usually reserved for lesser-known local players hoping to make their way onto an NFL team’s radar.

Garnett was a standout in his four years on The Farm after joining the program in 2012 as part of a loaded recruiting class that featured linemen such as Peat, Kyle Murphy and Graham Shuler. He earned his first start midway through the season against Washington State, becoming the first true freshman to start on the Cardinal offensive line since 2000. He would go on to play in all 55 games of his career.

Garnetts’s collegiate career culminated when he was awarded the Morris Trophy (Pac-12’s best lineman) and the Outland Trophy (nation’s best lineman) this season, the first time a Stanford player has won the latter in school history. He routinely blew open running lanes for AP Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey this season en route to earning unanimous All-American honors.

Stanford head coach David Shaw happened to be on set as an NFL Network analyst when Garnett’s pick was announced.

“He’s one of the best physical run-blockers you’re going to see come out of college in the last couple years, and I can’t wait to watch [him] play on Sundays,” said an emotional Shaw.

Garnett is a human biology major who hopes to become a surgeon after his NFL career.

“When you throw the intangibles in there, he’s a kid that wants to go to med school; a senior that is going to graduate in June with a degree from Stanford,” Kelly said. “I think you check off all the boxes when you look at him.

“He’s an extremely driven person in everything he does, whether it’s academics or athletics, and that’s what attracts you to people like Josh. No matter what the challenges are ahead of him, he’s going to attack them with everything he has.”

The remaining six rounds of the draft will take place over the next two days, with several more Cardinal players hoping to hear their names called.

 

Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr@stanford.edu.

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Women’s tennis faces No. 1 Cal in regular season finale https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/15/womens-tennis-faces-no-1-cal-in-regular-season-finale/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/15/womens-tennis-faces-no-1-cal-in-regular-season-finale/#respond Fri, 15 Apr 2016 07:49:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113664 The No. 17 Stanford women’s tennis team’s (12-5, 7-1 Pac-12) regular season culminates this weekend with its biggest match yet against No. 1 California (19-0, 7-0). While the matchup between the rivals is always contentious, this year’s rendition of the Big Slam features a number of storylines that promise an exciting contest. Although the teams’ […]

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The No. 17 Stanford women’s tennis team’s (12-5, 7-1 Pac-12) regular season culminates this weekend with its biggest match yet against No. 1 California (19-0, 7-0). While the matchup between the rivals is always contentious, this year’s rendition of the Big Slam features a number of storylines that promise an exciting contest.

Carol Zhao. Stanford Women's Tennis v. Florida. Photo by Allison Harman
Carol Zhao (above) has helped Stanford take five of its last six matches after returning from playing on the professional circuit. The Cardinal’s only loss during that span was against Cal, which the Cardinal will face in a high-stakes rematch this weekend. (ALLISON HARMAN/The Stanford Daily)

Although the teams’ records look disparate on paper, the Cardinal have been on fire since the permanent return of their stalwart No. 1, junior Carol Zhao. The team has won five of their last six matches, dropping only three individual matches in those victories. Stanford’s only loss in that period came at the hands of Cal two weeks ago in Berkeley.

Stanford started the match strongly, clinching the doubles point behind victories on the top two courts. However, the Bears came back dominant in singles play, winning four straight to clinch the match. Three-set victories by Krista Hardebeck and Caroline Lampl on Courts 4 and 5 brought the final score to 4-3 in favor of Cal.

The hard-fought loss did not count in the conference standings, while Saturday’s meeting on The Farm will, carrying serious implications for both teams. A victory would complete a perfect regular season for Cal, something the program has never achieved in its 43-year history. It would also secure the Pac-12 title for the Golden Bears for just the second time since 1988 and almost certainly clinch them the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Meanwhile, a Stanford upset would flip the tables and place the Cardinal in serious contention for the conference title. With a UCLA victory over USC, Stanford would clinch the title outright; if the Trojans are able to get by the Bruins, Stanford would meet USC in a neutral-site match to decide the conference winner.

Stanford also currently sits just a spot outside the nation’s top-16, a crucial distinction as the top 16 teams in the country host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. While a loss would leave Stanford’s hosting fate in the hands of the selection committee, a win would virtually lock up home-court advantage for the Cardinal until the Round of 16.

Such a victory won’t be easy to come by, however, as the Golden Bears are loaded with talent up and down their roster. Maegan Manasse and Klara Fabikova are featured at the top two spots for the Bears, and are both ranked in the top-15 in the country. Senior Lynn Chi and junior Denise Starr are both currently ranked in the top-75, and bring veteran experience to the starting lineup.

Strong doubles play will be crucial for the Cardinal in order to alleviate some of the pressure that the team will face against the Bears’ stacked singles lineup. Stanford’s Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle, the No. 4 team in the country, will face No. 3 Manasse and Starr of Cal on Court 1 in a rare matchup between top-5 teams.

In singles, Stanford will look to Hardebeck to continue her stellar play, as the senior has rattled off 14 straight victories. However, the match may very well be decided by the match between No. 56 Zhao and No. 10 Manasse on Court 1. The juniors have a fierce rivalry dating back to last year, when Zhao got the better of Manasse twice in three-set battles, including in a 4-3 upset in the third round of the NCAA tournament. This year, however, the Cal No. 1 dispatched of her Stanford counterpart in a tight 7-5, 6-4 victory.

Stanford will hope to be aided by a rowdy atmosphere at Taube Family Center, where the team is 9-1 on the year. Doubles kicks off this year’s Big Slam on Saturday at noon.

 

Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr@stanford.edu.

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A.J. Tarpley retires from NFL, citing health concerns https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/08/a-j-tarpley-retires-from-nfl-citing-health-concerns/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/08/a-j-tarpley-retires-from-nfl-citing-health-concerns/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:34:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113317 Buffalo Bills linebacker and former Cardinal standout A.J. Tarpley announced his retirement from the NFL on Wednesday, citing health concerns after receiving the third and fourth concussions of his career during the 2015 season. “I’m walking away from the game I love to preserve my future health,” he wrote in a post on his Instagram account. “This decision is […]

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Buffalo Bills linebacker and former Cardinal standout A.J. Tarpley announced his retirement from the NFL on Wednesday, citing health concerns after receiving the third and fourth concussions of his career during the 2015 season.

(SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)
Before joining the Buffalo Bills, A.J. Tarpley (above) helped lead Stanford to back-to-back Pac-12 Championships, earning All-Pac-12 Second Team honors his senior year. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

“I’m walking away from the game I love to preserve my future health,” he wrote in a post on his Instagram account“This decision is the hardest I’ve made yet but after much research and contemplation I believe it’s what is best for me going forward.”

The Minnesota native was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Bills last year and saw playing time almost exclusively on special teams before being waived from the team mid-season. He returned to the team in December after injuries at the linebacker position.

Tarpley shined after his return, earning a starting role in the penultimate game of the season against the Dallas Cowboys and recording both a forced fumble and an interception to fuel the Bills to a victory.

In the last game of the season, Tarpley intercepted Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter to seal the win for the Bills. The play would be the last of his career.

Prior to his professional stint with the Bills, Tarpley was a member of a vaunted Cardinal linebacker corps that included the likes of Trent Murphy, Shayne Skov and Chase Thomas. In 2014, he captained a Cardinal defense that was top-5 nationally in points per game and total defense, ranking second on the team in total tackles and garnering an All-Pac-12 Second Team recognition in the process.

During his five years on The Farm, Tarpley reached four straight BCS titles and won back-to-back Pac-12 Championships, helping to elevate the Cardinal from a mediocre program to contenders on a national stage. His collegiate career, however, might be best remembered for his 2011 performance against USC. Tarpley recorded an interception and a fumble recovery that secured a 56-48 triple-overtime victory for Stanford, in what is widely considered one of the great college football games in recent memory.

At age 23, Tarpley joins a number of high-profile NFL young athletes, including 49ers Chris Borland (24) and Anthony Davis (25), that have announced their retirement preemptively due to health and concussion concerns.

 

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

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Jerod Haase introduction ushers in new era for men’s basketball https://stanforddaily.com/2016/03/28/jerod-haase-introduction-ushers-in-new-era-for-mens-basketball/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/03/28/jerod-haase-introduction-ushers-in-new-era-for-mens-basketball/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2016 06:48:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1112627 On Monday, Jerod Haase was formally introduced as the Stanford Anne and Tony Joseph Director of Men’s Basketball by Athletic Director Bernard Muir in an introductory news conference. Haase was named the 18th head coach in Stanford history last Friday, just 11 days after former head coach Johnny Dawkins was fired after eight seasons.  Haase […]

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New men’s basketball coach Jerod Haase (above) brings 17 years of coaching experience to the Farm, including four years as the head coach of UAB. (Courtesy of Stanford Athletics)

On Monday, Jerod Haase was formally introduced as the Stanford Anne and Tony Joseph Director of Men’s Basketball by Athletic Director Bernard Muir in an introductory news conference. Haase was named the 18th head coach in Stanford history last Friday, just 11 days after former head coach Johnny Dawkins was fired after eight seasons. 

Haase brings 17 years of coaching experience to The Farm, including four years at the helm of UAB’s program, from 2012 to 2016. Haase went 80-53 with the Blazers, winning the Conference USA tournament and reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2015, and clinching a conference regular season title in 2016.

Before his coaching career, Haase was a successful collegiate player, playing at Cal for a season before transferring to Kansas. Haase was an immediate contributor for the Jayhawks, averaging 15.0 points per game as a sophomore starter and earning Big Eight Newcomer of the Year honors. He started in 99 of 101 games during his Jayhawks career, winning three conference titles and leading his team to the Sweet Sixteen or further each year.

After graduation, Haase joined the coaching staff at Kansas as an assistant under legendary head coach Roy Williams for four years before following Williams to UNC in 2003, where he stayed until receiving the head coaching job at UAB in 2012. As a coach under Williams, Haase reached five Final Fours and won two National Championships.

Stanford’s new head coach will look to bring his wealth of success and experience to the Cardinal, who have experienced March Madness just once in the last eight years.

“One of the things I’m going to do is explain what it’s like for the guys that haven’t been in the NCAA Tournament. Explain what it’s like to cut down nets and win championships,” said Haase on Monday.

“We’re going to be led by our dreams. I believe that can be a great motivating force, and we’re going to push that way.”

While Haase was vague about specific changes he will make to the Stanford program, he discussed the “attack mentality” that he will seek to instill in the team extensively. As a player, Haase was known for his tenacity — he co-wrote a book called “Floor Burns” about his time at Kansas, borrowing the book’s moniker from the name of a stat Kansas coaches began tracking every time Haase dived on the floor for a loose ball.

Offensively, Haase champions an “unselfish” style of play that will emphasize ball movement over individual scoring ability. This style was apparent at UAB, where the Blazers finished the 2016 season ranked 3rd in the country with 18.4 assists per game.

Above all, Haase made it clear that developing long-standing relationships with his players — whom he met for the first time before the conference — was his top priority.

“When I played for Coach Williams, I always felt every decision he made was based on what was best for his student-athlete,” he explained. “My goal is to do the same thing here and make sure the players here know that we always have their best interest at heart.

“I do believe there is going to be a great deal of buy-in from the team and a belief from the team that we can achieve great things. I would not be here if I didn’t think we could compete at the highest level and do it fairly quickly.”

Haase will have his hands full in his first months as the Cardinal’s head coach: In addition to offseason training with the team, he will hit the recruiting trail almost immediately and look to build his assistant coaching staff after the Final Four.

“This job is going to be challenging. Being in the Pac-12 is brutal,” said Haase. “It’s also something I’m excited about and I think there’s great opportunity as well.”

For Haase, coaching at Stanford is the realization of a 25 year-old dream: As the Nevada AAA Player of the Year his senior year, Haase wanted to play at Stanford, but was spurned by then-head coach Mike Montgomery.

“It didn’t work out the first time,” he admitted. “This is a situation where I have a second chance at something very, very special. The goal right now is to take advantage of that opportunity and build something the best we possibly can as I lead this program.”

Haase brought a folder containing his high school Stanford recruitment letters to his interviews with Muir, impressing the Athletic Director enough to be chosen over other qualified candidates such as Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle and Warriors assistant Jarron Collins, according to Jon Wilner of the Mercury News.

“We want to build a sense of community. This is everyone’s program,” said Muir. “It’s really important that the coach not only has to coach and win games, but they also have to be a great ambassador. I think Jerod brings that to the table. He’s ready to hit the ground running.”

 

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

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Men’s basketball demolished by Arizona in last conference game https://stanforddaily.com/2016/03/09/mens-basketball-demolished-by-arizona-in-last-conference-game/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/03/09/mens-basketball-demolished-by-arizona-in-last-conference-game/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2016 11:48:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1112257 If you tuned in to the game at the McKale Center on Saturday afternoon, you just might have wondered if NBA MVP Stephen Curry had time-traveled back to his college days and transferred to the University of Arizona. Yet it was not Curry, but another skinny, undersized guard by the name of Gabe York who lit […]

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If you tuned in to the game at the McKale Center on Saturday afternoon, you just might have wondered if NBA MVP Stephen Curry had time-traveled back to his college days and transferred to the University of Arizona.

Yet it was not Curry, but another skinny, undersized guard by the name of Gabe York who lit up for a career-high 32 points against Stanford, leading No. 18 Arizona (24-7, 12-6 Pac-12) to a 94-62 destruction of Stanford (15-14, 8-10) in the Cardinal’s last game of conference play.

York opened the game with a 3-pointer, and the Wildcats built a 15-point lead by the midway point of the first half that they would not give up. The Cardinal were plagued by the same problems they’ve experienced all season; while their defense played well, their offensive production was anemic and could not keep up with the Cats’ 20th-ranked offense.

Phoenix native Michael Humphrey had a solid night in his homecoming game, scoring 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting while grabbing 9 rebounds. The rest of the starters could not find any rhythm shooting the ball, however, collectively shooting 24 percent from the field and an atrocious 1-for-16 from the 3-point line.

Stanford also suffered from the absence of starting point guard Christian Sanders, whom head coach Johnny Dawkins announced is facing an indefinite suspension due to a violation of team rules, with the announcement coming just hours before the team’s loss to Arizona State on Thursday. Sophomore Dorian Pickens started in his place, recording 8 points on 2-for-10 shooting and just two assists.

Leading 40-24 at halftime, Arizona came out even stronger in the second half, stretching the lead to 29 seven minutes into the half behind 9 3-pointers from York. The senior guard could not be stopped in his final regular season game for Arizona, knocking down shots from nearly 30 feet and finishing with all 9 of his field goals from beyond the arc.

The contrast between the teams’ shooting nights was like black and white, as the Wildcats shot over 49 percent from the field and set a team-record with 18 3-pointers.

With just over five minutes left in the game and Arizona leading by nearly 40, head coach Sean Miller pulled his starters from the game to a raucous standing ovation from the Tucson crowd, which has spurred the Wildcats to 55 wins in their last 56 games at home. The final 32-point deficit marked Stanford’s worst loss of the season.

Such a loss could not have come at a worse time for Stanford, as the team will have to quickly regroup for the Pac-12 Tournament and postseason play. Stanford enters the tournament as the ninth seed and will play eighth-seeded Washington (17-13, 9-9) in the first round.

The Huskies defeated Stanford 64-53 in early February, the only meeting between the teams this season. While the Cardinal successfully limited Pac-12 scoring leader Andrew Andrews to just eight points, poor shooting prevented the team from stealing a win against the higher-ranked team. Freshman guard Dejounte Murray was a force for the Huskies in the game, exploding for 25 points.

Should Stanford find a way past the Huskies this time, it will meet top-seeded Oregon in the quarterfinals. While Stanford upset the then-No.11 Ducks earlier this season at home, the team has not lost a game since then. Arizona also lies on the Cardinal’s side of the bracket, with a rematch looming in the semifinals between the teams if both were to make it that far.

The Pac-12 is expected to send a staggering seven teams to the NCAA tournament, however; barring a miraculous run in the conference tournament, the Cardinal will not be among them. Stanford is currently projected on the bubble of the NIT tourney, which the team won last year. A poor performance against Washington could relegate the team to the lowly CBI tournament.

Stanford tips off against Washington on Wednesday at noon in Las Vegas, Nevada on Pac-12 Networks. The tournament will continue through Saturday evening.

 

Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr@stanford.edu.

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Softball disappoints at Nike Invitational, losing three of four at home https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/22/softball-disappoints-at-nike-invitational-losing-three-of-four-at-home/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/22/softball-disappoints-at-nike-invitational-losing-three-of-four-at-home/#respond Tue, 23 Feb 2016 07:25:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111317 After a promising start to the season on the road, Stanford softball (4-5) had a disappointing home opener this weekend, dropping three of its four games in the Nike Invitational. The team opened play against North Dakota State (5-5) on Friday, despite wet conditions that had postponed the baseball season opener to the next day. NDSU […]

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After a promising start to the season on the road, Stanford softball (4-5) had a disappointing home opener this weekend, dropping three of its four games in the Nike Invitational.

STANFORD, CA - May 3, 2015: The Stanford Cardinal vs Arizona State Sun Devils in softball at Boyd & Jill Smith Family Stadium in Stanford, California. Final score, Stanford 4, Arizona State 2.
Stanford sophomore catcher Victoria Molina (above left) hit a three run homer, her first of the season, to tie the score 4-4 in the Cardinal’s failed comeback against St. Mary’s. (DAVID BERNAL/stanfordphoto.com)

The team opened play against North Dakota State (5-5) on Friday, despite wet conditions that had postponed the baseball season opener to the next day.

NDSU started the game strong, scoring three runs on seven hits through the first four innings. Meanwhile, Stanford’s only run of the evening came in the first inning after a wild pitch allowed junior Kylie Sorenson to run home from third.

The Bison put the game out of reach in the fifth inning, after sophomore pitcher Haley Snyder came in to relieve freshman Carolyn Lee. In just one inning, Snyder gave up five runs on two hits while allowing two walks and a strikeout. Snyder did not get any help from her defense, which committed two errors in the inning, ultimately contributing to the mercy rule being invoked with NDSU leading 9-1.

On Saturday morning, the team rallied for its only win of the weekend, topping Saint Mary’s (3-5) 5-2. Snyder redeemed herself against the Gaels, pitching all seven innings and allowing only three runs on 11 hits and three walks.

Offensively, the team also had a stronger showing against the Gaels. Senior Kayla Bonstrom led the team with two RBI doubles, while sophomore Arden Pettit got on base in all three of her at-bats.

The Cardinal were not able to carry over the momentum from their win, however, dropping a 3-1 contest to Long Beach State (3-3) later in the day. The game was a pitching duel between Lee and LBSU’s Cielo Meza, with both players going the distance and playing the full 7 innings.

While the game was scoreless for the first four innings, the Cardinal blinked first in the fifth, allowing the Beach to get on base off of an error from third baseman Pettit. LBSU followed with a sacrifice bunt and a single to get on the scoreboard.

The Beach went on to score in the sixth and the seventh to extend its lead to 3-0, while Meza was near-perfect, giving up only two hits in the fourth inning during the entire game. Stanford’s single run in the bottom of the ninth brought the final score to 3-1.

“I’m really proud of how the team played; it was a good battle,” said head coach Rachel Hanson. “It was one of those games where our hits didn’t fall and you just come back the next day ready to get after it.”

Stanford played its final game on Sunday, hoping to get back to .500 over the weekend with a second win over the struggling Gaels, which had not won a game over the weekend and had amassed a 23-run deficit in just four games.

However, the Gaels came out on fire in the rematch, racing out to a 4-1 lead by the the end of the fifth inning. The Cardinal refused to go away, though, as sophomore catcher Victoria Molina hit a three-run homer, her first of the season, in the sixth inning to even the score at four.

“Victoria really has a great mentality at the plate right now and is attacking good pitches,” Hanson said. “She stood up and delivered in a big moment.”

With both teams held scoreless in the seventh, the game went to extra innings. The Gaels finally broke through in the top of the ninth, scoring two runs to take a 6-4 lead they would not relinquish. While Stanford scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to cause some suspense, it was ultimately unable to complete the comeback.

Stanford next competes in the Mary Nutter Classic in Cathedral City, California, this Thursday.

 

Contact Laura Stickells at lauraczs ‘at’ stanford.edu and Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Softball hosts Nike Invitational to open home slate https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/19/softball-hosts-nike-invitational-to-open-home-slate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/19/softball-hosts-nike-invitational-to-open-home-slate/#respond Fri, 19 Feb 2016 08:35:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111148 The Stanford softball team (3-2) will open its 2016 home slate against a batch of non-conference opponents in the Stanford Nike Invitational this weekend. The Cardinal will face North Dakota State, Saint Mary’s and Long Beach State during the three-day event between the four teams. Stanford is fresh off of a trip to Tempe, Arizona last […]

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The Stanford softball team (3-2) will open its 2016 home slate against a batch of non-conference opponents in the Stanford Nike Invitational this weekend. The Cardinal will face North Dakota State, Saint Mary’s and Long Beach State during the three-day event between the four teams.

(DAVID BERNAL/isiphotos.com)
Junior Bessie Noll (above) has hit a team-high 3 home runs over Stanford’s first five games of the season, while also notching a .938 slugging percentage and 4 RBIs. (DAVID BERNAL/isiphotos.com)

Stanford is fresh off of a trip to Tempe, Arizona last weekend, where the team saw mixed results in its season-opening action. In their first game against Portland State, the Cardinal raced to a 10-0 lead after just three innings and tallied on another run before the mercy rule was invoked at the end of the fifth inning. The team proceeded to split its remaining four games, dropping contests to New Mexico and Cal State Northridge and beating Cal Poly and Seattle.

Looking ahead to this weekend, the Cardinal will rely heavily on the bats of junior Kylie Sorenson and senior Kayla Bonstrom, both of whom are hitting over .400 and have accounted for a majority of the team’s offensive production. Junior Bessie Noll has also been a force early in the season, tallying 4 RBIs while also hitting a team-leading 3 home runs and posting a .938 slugging percentage.

Meanwhile, Stanford is noticeably inexperienced on the mound: The team’s only returning true pitcher is sophomore Haley Snyder, who has struck out 13 players in her 16 innings pitched. After picking up the first two starts of her career, freshman Carolyn Lee will also see action this weekend.

Stanford plays its home opener against North Dakota State on Friday at 5 p.m. before returning to the field to take on Saint Mary’s at 10 a.m. and LBSU at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The team will close the weekend with a second matchup against Saint Mary’s at 2 p.m. on Sunday. All games will take place at Smith Family Stadium.

 

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

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Women’s volleyball honors seniors with Big Spike victory, ends season at UCLA https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/27/womens-volleyball-honors-seniors-with-big-spike-victory-ends-season-at-ucla/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/27/womens-volleyball-honors-seniors-with-big-spike-victory-ends-season-at-ucla/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2015 12:18:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108112 The No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball team (21-6, 15-4 Pac-12) sent its seniors off in style in their last home game Wednesday night, defeating archrival Cal (9-21, 3-16) by a 3-1 final margin, 25-22, 18-25, 25-13, 25-23. The four-set victory was the Cardinal’s eighth straight Big Spike victory, meaning that the senior class of Madi […]

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The No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball team (21-6, 15-4 Pac-12) sent its seniors off in style in their last home game Wednesday night, defeating archrival Cal (9-21, 3-16) by a 3-1 final margin, 25-22, 18-25, 25-13, 25-23.

The four-set victory was the Cardinal’s eighth straight Big Spike victory, meaning that the senior class of Madi Bugg, Jordan Burgess and Brittany Howard will end their Stanford careers undefeated against the Golden Bears. (Senior Inky Ajanaku is also among the group, but will return next year after a medical redshirt this season.)

In her Senior Night celebration, outside hitter Brittany Howard (center) notched her 10th double-double of the season with 12 kills and 13 digs. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)
In her Senior Night celebration, outside hitter Brittany Howard (center) notched her 10th double-double of the season with 12 kills and 13 digs. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)

The match started as a back-and-forth affair, with 13 tied scores and 4 lead changes in the first set. Cal senior Lillian Schonewise came out on fire, registering 9 of her 20 kills in the first to keep the unranked Bears in contention.

At 18-18, however, Stanford was able to pull away behind the efforts of Burgess and middle blocker Merete Lutz, who together registered 5 kills in the span of 8 points. Back-to-back kills by freshman Hayley Hodson granted the Cardinal the first set, 25-22.

Stanford got off to a quick start in the second, taking an 11-7 lead. However, the Golden Bears, who had won just three sets in the series dating back to 2012, fought back, riding the formidable play of Schonewise and sophomore outside hitter Christine Alftin, to go on a 13-2 streak and take a 20-13 lead.

After allowing Stanford to hit .469 in the first set, Cal held the Cardinal to just a .132 clip in the second and took the set, 25-18.

The overmatched Bears were unable to sustain their level of play for the rest of the match, however. In the third set, Cal managed just 8 kills to Stanford’s 18 and was outhit .097 to .405. After a series of runs, Stanford closed out the set easily, 25-13.

Setter Madi Bugg (center) tied her fifth-best performance of the season with 49 assists in the Cardinal's 3-1 victory over Cal. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)
Setter Madi Bugg (center) tied her fifth-best performance of the season with 49 assists in the Cardinal’s 3-1 victory over Cal. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)

It was more of the same from the Cardinal in the fourth, as Hodson opened the set with a kill, and the team never relinquished the lead en route to a 25-23 victory. The freshman outside hitter tallied 7 of her team-high 18 kills in the set to seal the victory for Stanford.

Senior Brittany Howard finished the night with her 10th double-double of the season, registering 12 kills and 13 digs. Classmate and fellow outside hitter Jordan Burgess added 8 kills, while setter Madi Bugg dished out 49 assists.

The senior trio, honored before the game, ends its career at Maples Pavilion an outstanding 60-2 and still has time to improve on its 111-18 career record, as Stanford travels to Southern California to take on No. 13 UCLA (23-6, 14-5) in the last game of the regular season.

It will mark Stanford’s only meeting with the Bruins this year, a team the Cardinal have not lost to since the 2011 season, dropping just five sets in the teams’ past six meetings. 

However, the Bruins are fresh off their biggest win of the season, upsetting No. 1 USC in a five-set thriller to hand the Trojans just their second loss of the year. Junior libero Taylor Formico was a force for UCLA, notching a season-high 28 digs, and will look to neutralize the Cardinal attack in a similar fashion.

Outside hitter Jordan Burgess (top) notched 8 kills and 6 digs against Cal. Stanford outhit Cal as a whole, .333 to .276, in the Big Spike. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)
Outside hitter Jordan Burgess (top) notched 8 kills and 6 digs against Cal. Stanford outhit Cal as a whole, .333 to .276, in the Big Spike. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)

The Bruins also feature one of the conference’s best players in junior outside hitter Jordan Anderson. In her first season at UCLA, the West Virginia transfer ranks 12th in the country with 4.55 kills per set. 

Friday’s matchup with the Bruins will carry extra significance, as the winner will claim the third spot in the final conference standings behind USC and Washington, the top two teams in the country.

The Cardinal, winners of 11 of their last 12, will look to end the regular season on a high note before shifting its focus to the postseason, where the team has advanced to the Regional Finals or the Final Four in each of its last three seasons.

Stanford takes on the Bruins in Los Angeles on Friday at 8 p.m. The match will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks.


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

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Top three matchups: Stanford vs. Notre Dame https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/27/top-three-matchups-stanford-vs-notre-dame/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/27/top-three-matchups-stanford-vs-notre-dame/#respond Fri, 27 Nov 2015 11:30:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108104 No. 13 Stanford (9-2, 8-1 Pac-12) vs. No. 4 Notre Dame (10-1)

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Christian McCaffrey, RB (So.)

Stanford’s jack-of-all-trades once again demonstrated how vital he is to the team in last week’s victory against Cal, singlehandedly accounting for nearly 70 percent of the team’s yards and allowing the Cardinal to win comfortably despite being dominated statistically. The nation’s all-purpose yardage leader will need another strong outing in order to keep the team’s College Football Playoff aspirations and his own Heisman hopes alive.

vs.

Jaylon Smith, LB (Jr.)

A finalist for the Butkus Award, awarded to the nation’s top linebacker, Smith has had another remarkable season for the Fighting Irish. A Second-Team All-American selection in 2014, Smith leads Notre Dame in tackles with 98, 30 more than any other player on the team. He is also the team leader in pass breakups with 5 and has posted 8 tackles for loss on the season.

***

Stanford secondary

Stanford’s pass defense is on shaky ground, as No. 1 and 2 cornerbacks Ronnie Harris and Alijah Holder are huge question marks going into Saturday’s game. Regardless of who is able to start in the secondary, the unit will have its hands full dealing with the arm of quarterback DeShone Kizer, who ranks top 20 in the country in passer efficiency, and his talented wide receiver squad.

vs.

Will Fuller, WR (Jr.)

Leading the charge in the passing game for the Fighting Irish is Fuller, whose 1,009 yards on 50 receptions are a team-best. The junior is a formidable deep-threat, as he averages 20.2 yards per catch, and has 12 touchdowns, good for seventh-best in the country. 

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Joshua Garnett, OG (Sr.)

The senior’s play this season has raised eyebrows across the country, earning him recognition as a finalist for the Outland Trophy, given to the nation’s most outstanding lineman. Garnett may also be the best pulling guard in the country, paving the way for the Cardinal backfield, while also making the weekly highlight reels for his obliteration of defenders.

vs.

Sheldon Day, DT (Sr.)

Day is the most disruptive player on the Notre Dame defense, as he leads the team with 14.5 tackles for loss. Both Day and and Garnett figure to be playing on Sundays next year, and the matchup will surely be an intriguing one.

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

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By the numbers: Stanford vs. Cal https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/24/by-the-numbers-stanford-vs-cal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/24/by-the-numbers-stanford-vs-cal/#respond Tue, 24 Nov 2015 09:00:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108021 The post By the numbers: Stanford vs. Cal appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Infographic (1)

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Women’s soccer advances to NCAA quarterfinals with 3-0 win over Arizona https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/21/womens-soccer-in-serious-contention-for-national-championship/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/21/womens-soccer-in-serious-contention-for-national-championship/#respond Sun, 22 Nov 2015 07:00:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1107602 [View the story “Women’s soccer in serious contention for national championship” on Storify]

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Top three matchups: Stanford vs. Oregon https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/14/top-three-matchups-stanford-vs-oregon/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/14/top-three-matchups-stanford-vs-oregon/#respond Sat, 14 Nov 2015 23:59:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1107048 The post Top three matchups: Stanford vs. Oregon appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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The Weekender (Page 5)

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Balanced attack leads women’s volleyball to sixth straight win https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/09/balanced-attack-leads-womens-volleyball-to-sixth-straight-win/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/09/balanced-attack-leads-womens-volleyball-to-sixth-straight-win/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2015 11:16:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1106634 The No. 7 Stanford women’s volleyball team (17-5, 11-3 Pac-12) completed its sweep of the Oregon schools with a three-set victory over unranked Oregon State (5-19, 3-11) in Corvallis. It was the Cardinal’s 63rd win in as many games against the Beavers, extending the team’s current win streak to six. Stanford featured a balanced, consistent […]

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The No. 7 Stanford women’s volleyball team (17-5, 11-3 Pac-12) completed its sweep of the Oregon schools with a three-set victory over unranked Oregon State (5-19, 3-11) in Corvallis. It was the Cardinal’s 63rd win in as many games against the Beavers, extending the team’s current win streak to six.

Stanford featured a balanced, consistent attack that has become characteristic of the team over the past month. Senior setter Madi Bugg registered 39 assists, distributing evenly to Hayley Hodson, Merete Lutz and Brittany Howard, who all finished with 12 kills.

Stanford fell behind early against the conference’s last-ranked team, finding itself in a 17-11 hole in the first set. Following a timeout, however, the Cardinal came storming back, going on a 12-6 run to tie the match at 23. Consecutive kills by outside hitters Hodson and Jordan Burgess granted Stanford a 1-0 match lead.

From there, the Cardinal offense ramped up significantly, hitting at .378 and .441 clips in the second and third sets, respectively.

Despite being overmatched, the Beavers fought hard in the second set behind the efforts of outside hitter Lila Toner, whose 4 early kills kept the score even. However, Lutz could not be stopped, as she notched 7 kills, including the first and last points of the set, to propel Stanford to a 25-21 win.

The junior, who ranks fifth in the conference in hitting percentage (.369), posted a outstanding .647 clip during the match, with 12 kills on 17 attacks.

The third set was more of the same for the Cardinal, as a series of service and attack errors from Oregon State gifted Stanford a 7-4 lead, from which it never looked back. Senior outside hitter Brittany Howard registered kills on four of the team’s last seven points to seal the set 25-18 and grant Stanford the win.

Hodson, the Cardinal’s freshman sensation, had another solid game, posting 10 digs along with 12 kills for her 10th double-double of the year. The outside hitter also had three of Stanford’s four aces, tying her career-high.

Stanford will now remain on the road, returning to the Pacific Northwest this Thursday to take on No. 10 Washington, followed by Washington State on Sunday. The Cardinal will look to continue their recent hot streak: After their 3-2 upset of then-No. 4 Washington, the team has lost only one set in the span of five matches. 

Washington will likely pose a stiffer challenge in Seattle, where it is undefeated in the regular season dating back to 2012.

Stanford plays the Huskies on Thursday at 8 p.m. The game will be aired live on ESPNU.

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

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