Although the Cardinal have been back in the Bay Area for awhile now, tonight will be the first chance for many Stanford fans to see a dual meet this season, as the squad takes on San Francisco State in the first home dual of the season following winter break tonight in Burnham Pavilion.

While Stanford’s season to date has been frustratingly inconsistent, coach Kerry McCoy’s team nevertheless boasts two nationally ranked wrestlers in juniors Tanner Gardner at 125 pounds and Josh Zupancic at 157 pounds at No. 4 and No. 16 respectively. Gardner, who earned All-American honors last season, enters the dual as the highest ranked wrestler in the Pac-10.

Gardner and Zupancic will look to lead the way in helping their team to rebound from several disappointing early season showings, capped most recently at the inaugural Stanford Duals. The Cardinal went 0-3 against No. 23 Lehigh, Columbia, and conference rival UC-Davis, winning only eight of 30 individual matches.

McCoy’s early season strategy has been to expose his wrestlers to the highest level of competition possible against non-conference opponents. He hopes both to prepare his team for the Pac-10 schedule and give those who advance to the NCAA Championships a chance to see their possible opponents.

“Our guys have been working really hard,” McCoy said. “Just about everyone on our team has wrestled 20 matches so far, and we’re definitely improved. Given the schedule we’ve wrestled so far maybe that hasn’t shown itself as much yet, but going into February that hard work should start to pay off.”

The Cardinal will face the less-than-dominant Gators who went 0-14 last season and are off to a 1-7 start this year, with their lone win coming against Mesa State on Jan. 4. Stanford won seven of 10 matches against SF State last season, en route to a 30-9 road win. Nevertheless, McCoy was adamant that his team needed to remain focused to earn a win.

“We want our guys to work hard, no matter who they’re competing against,” McCoy said. “[San Francisco State] may not be a powerhouse, but they still have some good guys in that lineup.”

Kenneth Packard leads the Gators in team points this season and is their only wrestler who has faced a Cardinal opponent this season. Zupancic posted a 15-0 victory over Packard at the Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1. Other solid contributors for SF State include Ali and Ben Lockett at 149 and 133 pounds, respectively, who have each scored 73 points for the Gators.

The Cardinal face a relatively light schedule in January, which McCoy hopes will give his team a chance to recover after their heavily stacked early season schedule. After taking on the Gators, Stanford will travel to Cal State Bakersfield on Jan. 21, before rounding out their competition for the month when they host Menlo College on Jan. 27. McCoy’s squad will then face six Pac-10 opponents in just over two weeks of competition in February.

“The way the schedule worked out was by design,” McCoy said. “The plan was to front-load the schedule so that we’d be wrestling against strong opponents we wouldn’t get to see otherwise during our conference competition. Then in January we wanted to give our guys the chance to recover and get ready for a late season push.”

Stanford’s match against the Gators tonight is set to begin at 7 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.