Barely 24 hours after claiming their third straight NCAA Championship, five of Stanford’s singles players took to the courts again for the first round of the NCAA Singles Championship. Seniors Amber Liu and Alice Barnes, junior Theresa Logar and sophomores Celia Durkin and Whitney Deason all won their matches and advance to tomorrow’s round of 32.
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Senior Amber Liu, the eighth seed in the NCAA individual bracket, won her opening round match over Virginia Commonwealth's Marianna Yuferova in straight sets yesterday to advance to the round of 32. All five of the Stanford players in the draw won and will be back on the court today for their second-round matches.
Barnes, the No. 7 seed in the tournament, downed South Florida’s Courtney Vernon, 7-5, 6-2. After pulling away to an early 4-1 lead in the first set, Barnes struggled against Vernon, who pulled ahead, 5-4. Barnes still took the set, however, and had no problems with pulling out the second set. She next plays Georgia Rose of Northwestern today at 10 a.m.
Liu, the No. 8 seed, beat Marianna Yuferova of Virginia Commonwealth, 6-3, 6-2. A shoulder injury forced Liu to retire during the opening round of the singles tournament last year, but it is a healthy Liu that will face Anna Lubinsky of Texas A&M at 12:30 p.m. today.
Though she easily blanked New Mexico’s Maja Kovacek in the first set, 6-0, Logar, with a 9-16 seed, found her opponent did not give up without a fight. The second set was tight, but Logar emerged victorious, 7-5. She plays Helena Besovic of TCU at 10 a.m. today.
Durkin, in an unseeded position, eliminated Alexis Prousis of Northwestern, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. At 10 a.m. today, she must face Vanderbilt’s Taka Bertrand, who upset fifth seed Zsuzsanna Fodor of California.
Deason, also unseeded, beat Alexandra Hirsch of Wake Forest, also in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Deason and Hirsch were the only players left in Taube Stadium when the match finally ended at 9:15 p.m. — and now Deason must face top-seeded Audra Cohen of Miami, who beat Liu in Tuesday’s team final to score Miami its sole point of the match, today at 11:30 a.m.
Junior Anne Yelsey, who did not compete in singles during the NCAA Final on Tuesday, withdrew from the singles championship as well. She still plans to compete with partner Barnes in the doubles championship which begins today. She and Barnes are the top-ranked doubles team and won the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor title in November.

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