Thirty-two men’s and women’s tennis teams are about to descend upon The Farm for the first-ever combined men’s and women’s NCAA Tennis Championship. Among those 32 teams is the next obstacle standing between the Cardinal women and their third-straight NCAA title — No. 16 Texas Christian University.

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Alvin Chow

Senior co-captain Amber Liu has seen the Cardinal take the last two NCAA team titles. Last season, she was one win away from taking a doubles title too, but fell to teammates Alice Barnes and Erin Burdette in the championships.

The two teams will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, when the women’s round of 16 kicks off 11 days of women’s tennis at Taube Stadium.

The home team has been building toward this event since last fall when the pieces were first put into play: two-time defending champion Stanford, with four seniors on a team of 11, would be hosting the NCAA Championships.

“We’re definitely excited and anxious for NCAAs to finally be here,” senior co-captain Amber Liu said. “We’ve worked so hard all year and hope it really pays off.”

The team, however, is cautious not to look too far down the road. After all, the women must still win four matches to take home the title and could easily face such perennial powerhouses as No. 8 Duke and No. 4 Florida — the last team Stanford lost to, in the 2003 NCAA Championship match.

“We will definitely take this tournament one match at a time because it doesn’t do any good to dwell on the next round if you don’t make it there,” junior Anne Yelsey said.

Liu agreed.

“We’ve made sure all year to not take any team for granted, and we’re not about to do that at NCAAs either,” she said.

And so the team hunkers down for a few more days of serious practice before facing off against TCU (23-6). The Horned Frogs are making their first Sweet 16 appearance this year after blanking No. 18 Texas, 4-0 on Saturday.

“They really handed it to Texas,” Stanford Coach Lele Forood said. “They’re a very good group of players and we have to be really ready. We know a little about them because Nicole Leimbach [TCU’s No. 1 singles player, ranked 17th in the ITA rankings] played for Southern California last year. We’re familiar with how good of a player she is.”

Can the Horned Frogs cause the Card to croak on Thursday? It would be quite the feat, especially if Stanford produces the kind of focused play that has won it the past 82 matches.

“We’re prepared for TCU,” Yelsey said. “A few of us have played some of their top players in the fall and winter tournaments but at this point, it doesn’t matter who’s on the TCU team or what the match-ups are; we just have to play within ourselves. We know what to do.”

If Stanford advances, it will face either Duke (19-1) or No. 9 North Carolina (26-6) on Friday at 6 p.m. The winner of Friday’s match will get Saturday off while the men’s teams play their round of 16 matches, before playing the semifinal match at noon on Sunday. If all goes smoothly for the Cardinal women, they will be taking court in the cool evening air on Monday at 6:30 p.m for the Finals.

“We’re obviously really excited going into this week,” Yelsey said. “I think we all feel really well prepared, and after last weekend, we’re all feeling on top of our games. Right now is that ideal time to peak. Nothing else matters.”

Ad-in: Forood, Liu, senior co-captain Alice Barnes and junior Theresa Logar were all named ITA Regional Award Winners yesterday for the Northwest region. Forood earned the Wilson/ITA Coach of the Year for NCAA Division I women’s tennis for her work at the helm of the top-ranked, undefeated Stanford team. Liu earned the ITA/Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship and was selected the ITA Senior Player of the Year. Barnes was awarded the ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship for the second year in a row, while Logar got a nod as the ITA Player to Watch next season.