Riding on the shoulders of junior Jessica Nguyen, the Stanford women's tennis team took a big step towards regaining top form at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northwest Regional Championships.

In front of a home crowd at the Taube Family Tennis Center, Nguyen captured the team's first singles title of the year with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over California's Cristina Visico. Her win came after a runner-up showing at last year's Regionals.

"It's a great feeling coming off of last year," Nguyen said. "I was very happy with what happened last year, but this year coming back, I was really hoping to do better. Obviously, it can't get any better than today."

Despite winning in straight sets, Nguyen almost lost control of the final frame. Down 4-1, and trailing 30-love, Visico stormed back to take a 5-4 lead. But Nguyen stepped up and took the final three games and the championship.

"Of course, Visico was down 4-1 so she began swinging at the ball more aggressively," Nguyen said. "I was a little hesitant and backed off, but in the end, I had to close it out. When I got down 5-4, I had to focus more and stay aggressive, and it worked."

Nguyen was hampered by a foot injury for much of last year, but the junior says those problems are "no longer an issue."

"I've played ten matches in the last four days and I haven't felt a thing," she said. "I've been taking a lot of care of it and I just hope it stays this way. It's definitely a step forward for us."

The rest of the Cardinal women seem to have shrugged off their off-season rust as well.

Of the nine players entered in the main draw, seven lasted into the round of 32, including all three freshmen. Though five would make it into the round of 16, senior Celia Durkin and sophomore Lindsay Burdette fell in their third-round matches.

Durkin, the third seed, dropped a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 decision to Tinesta Rowe of Fresno State, while Burdette, seeded fifth, lost 6-2, 6-0 to California's Bojana Bobusic.

In the quarterfinals, Nguyen matched up against Stanford freshman Carolyn McVeigh, playing in her first collegiate event. McVeigh had already posted an impressive run, defeating two seeded opponents. Nguyen was too much for the freshman to handle and took the match 6-4, 6-2.

The team now looks to be headed in the right direction after a poor showing at the ITA All-American Championships.

"This year has been pretty rough for our whole team just because we start school later and everyone else has been training already for a while," Nguyen said. "It's really positive for our whole team to have as many girls as we did playing, especially for our freshmen. It gives us all confidence going into the season."

Nguyen also flourished in the doubles bracket, teaming up with freshman Hilary Barte in their run to the semifinals.

Playing in their first tournament together, Nguyen and Barte strung together three consecutive match wins before falling 8-6 to Fresno State's Renata Kucerkova and Anastasia Petukhova.

Despite the loss, their strong play is encouraging for the upcoming season.

"This was our first time playing together just to see how we would do and our chemistry on the court," Nguyen said. "We definitely had chemistry and did really well for playing for the first time together. With more practice and getting more comfortable playing together, we can do a lot better in the future."

Burdette and Durkin also showed on-court chemistry with their run to the quarterfinals, where they lost a close 9-8 (5) decision to California's Marina Cossou and Claire Ilcinkas.

Fresno State's Melanie Gloria and Tinesta Rowe defeated teammates Kucerkova and Petukhova 8-6 to bring home the school's second title in the last three years at the event.

Up next on Stanford's schedule are the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships and the Arizona State Invitational, the last tournaments of the fall season. With her singles title, Nguyen is guaranteed an automatic berth in the Indoor Championships in Columbus, Ohio.

But until then, the Cardinal will continue to play catch-up with the rest of the nation.

"We only have four official days of practice, so everyone's going to go out and work on the things that they saw during the tournament," Nguyen said. "We have to work off of the tournament and improve on our weaknesses in this short amount of time."