To nobody’s surprise, undefeated Stanford women’s tennis easily dispatched both Quinnipiac and No. 38 Arizona in the NCAA first and second rounds over the weekend. Both matches were quickly won, 4-0, and appeared effortless for Stanford’s players.

Enlarge
#gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6015
Shams Shaikh

Jessica Nguyen at a match against UCLA on April 9th

Friday’s first-round match against Quinnipiac (11-11) took only an hour and 39 minutes total, a marked contrast to the protracted four-hour match between Brigham Young (20-8) and Arizona (13-12) that took place immediately prior. The length of that match, which Arizona won 4-1 to send BYU back home, delayed Stanford’s start by an hour.

Sophomore Lejla Hodzic and freshman Jessica Nguyen finished their doubles match first, winning 8-0 on the third court. Then senior Amber Liu and sophomore Celia Durkin clinched the doubles point with an 8-1 win on the second. Senior Alice Barnes’ and junior Anne Yelsey’s first-court match was then suspended — though they were preparing to serve match point.

The singles matches also breezed by. At the No. 4 position, Yelsey blanked Quinnipiac’s Jackie Visinski, 6-0, 6-0, to finish first. On the sixth court, Nguyen also blanked her opponent, Danielle Rodriguez, to finish next. Barnes then secured the match with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Tina Hoang on the second court and play halted.

“I thought they were not a bad team,” Barnes said. “It was a good first round match for us. Everything went pretty much as planned, and we just got the job done — nice and uneventful.”

Saturday’s match, though about 20 minutes longer than Friday’s, was still brief as Arizona quickly fell. The doubles point was decided with an 8-1 win by Barnes and Yelsey and an 8-4 win by Hodzic and Nguyen.

Barnes was the first to finish her singles match this time, with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Stephanie Balzert at the No. 2 spot. Sophomore Whitney Deason then beat Camelia Todorova, 6-0, 6-1 on court five, and Durkin defeated Jessie Rochefort 6-1, 6-1 on court six to seal the deal.

“Arizona is actually a very strong team,” Barnes said. “Their record doesn’t look that good because they play in the Pac-10 and have to play us twice, the LA schools twice, Cal twice. But they are very good, so I’m really pleased with how everyone responded. It’s nice when everyone who is left on court when the match is decided and play is suspended is also winning. It sets the tone within the team pretty well. And another 10 minutes or so of play and everyone would have won.”

“I’m very happy with our performances this weekend, both as far as how we’re playing and how focused we are on what we need to do this week,” Coach Lele Forood said. “We showed a very good Arizona team that we are all business.”

With the weekend’s wins, the team advances to the Round of 16, held Thursday at Stanford.