When it comes to describing the Stanford women’s tennis team roster, the word turnover is a huge understatement. In each of the last two years, the Cardinal squad has lost their top two players from the previous year, most recently Teresa Logar ‘07 and Anne Yelsey ‘07.

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Stanford Daily File Photo

Stanford Daily File Photo Sophomore Lindsay Burdette hopes to put up a strong fight for the singles title at the ITA Championships. She enters the tournament ranked 16th, while senior Celia Durkin and junior Jessica Nguyen are ranked ninth and 15th, respectively.

Yet expectations for the Stanford women have not diminished.

Gunning for an auspicious start to their 2007-2008 campaign, the Cardinal will travel to Pacific Palisades, Calif. to compete in its first big test of the fall season, the Riviera/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Women’s All-American Tennis Championships. The tournament starts tomorrow and concludes on Sunday.

Returning ITA All-Americans senior Celia Durkin, junior Jessica Nguyen and sophomore Lindsay Burdette will represent Stanford as competitors in the main draw of the singles. All three will compete in a field of 32 top-ranked players.

Durkin, Nguyen and Burdette, however, will not be joined by fellow teammate Whitney Deason , who lost 6-0, 6-4 to Lenka Broosova of Baylor yesterday in the qualifying round of the Championships.

In the doubles qualifier, Burdette and Nguyen suffered a similar fate, losing 8-3 to Elizabeth Lumpkin and Stephanie Wetmore of UCLA. Burdette was a late substitution for Durkin, who had been slated to play with Nguyen.

Despite the early qualifying round losses, the team is in prime position for the singles main draw — all three Cardinal representatives are in the top-20 of the ITA preseason rankings.

Durkin, Nguyen and Burdette are ranked ninth, fifteenth, and sixteenth respectively — all career-highs.

However, history is against the Card. Its last singles title at the Championships was in 1990, and their last doubles title in 2000.

As the Card enter the new season, there are many interesting story lines developing — can the team reclaim the national championship after losing to UCLA in the semifinals last year? Can Stanford move on with the loss of Logar and Yelsey? Who will step up in place of last season’s leaders?

In fact, the last Cardinal woman to reach the finals of the singles draw was Erin Burdette ‘05, older sister to Lindsay.

In her first taste of the All-American Championships, the younger Burdette will have the chance to avenge her sister’s final round loss to Kops-Jones of California four years ago.

The ITA Women’s All-American Tennis Championships marks the first of four tournaments in the Cardinal’s fall season. Next up, Stanford will head home to host the ITA Northwest Regional Championships.

In January, Stanford will begin its team season against UC Davis, looking to start another impressive win streak (the Cardinal ran off 89 straight wins before losing to Georgia Tech last February).

But, like any other season, Stanford’s quest for their fourth title in five years begins at the ITA All-American, regardless of how many players have moved on and how many questions linger.

One thing’s for sure though — only time can tell whether this story has a happy ending.