Cruising through first- and second-round play of the NCAA Championships, Stanford women’s tennis successfully began its quest for a fourth straight national title this past weekend. With home-court advantage at the Taube Family Tennis Center, the Cardinal had little trouble in disposing of opponents Sacramento State (4-1) and Brigham Young (4-0).

“We did exactly what we set out to do,” said freshman Lindsay Burdette, competing in her first championship action. “We wanted quick wins with as little energy expended as possible. It was about working on our stuff and paying attention to detail. It was really good.”

Despite missing juniors Celia Durkin and Lejla Hodzic due to injuries, Stanford rolled past the Sacramento State Hornets on Friday. The Cardinal started the match off well, winning the doubles point, and then finished off Sac State in the singles portion. Sophomore Megan Doheny was the only member of the Cardinal to lose a match; Burdette, sophomore Jessica Nguyen, junior Whitney Deason and senior Anne Yelsey all won their matches in convincing straight sets.

Senior Theresa Logar was in a battle with the Hornets’ No. 1 Katrina Zheltova, but the individual match was called once Stanford had clinched the overall match with a 4-1 lead.

Saturday’s match against BYU brought the Cardinal even less trouble. Stanford defeated the Cougars 4-0, taking the doubles point and winning every match in straight sets.

As Burdette explained, Sacramento State and BYU actually presented more of a challenge than some of the Cardinal’s past early-round opponents.

“It’s been a joke in years past,” she said. “This weekend we played really good players and we played really well. We usually work at the end of the NCAA Tournament, but this year we played very well to begin with.”

For the Round of 16, the Cardinal is set to face Vanderbilt, which comes off defeating Tennessee in the second round. Stanford has already had a chance to see Vanderbilt this season: the Cardinal had its way with the Commodores at the ITA National Team Indoors, beating them 6-1 back in early February.

The second time around against Vanderbilt could be different, but Burdette was confident in her team’s chances.

“They are a solid team, but I don’t think they have the firepower to beat us,” she said.

If Stanford wins Friday’s match, there’s a strong possibility that it will face Pac-10 rival Southern California, a team that has already tested the Cardinal this year.

With its opening-round victories, Stanford travels tomorrow to Athens, Ga. for the rest of the NCAA Championships which take place on the University of Georgia campus.

Stanford will spend the next two weeks in Athens for both the Team and Individual NCAA Championships, with the team championships concluding on May 22 and the individual championships finishing on May 28.

The team will be well-represented in the singles and doubles brackets of the individual championships. Several members of the Cardinal squad were invited to the singles bracket; senior co-captain Theresa Logar, Yelsey, Durkin, Burdette and Nguyen will all vie for a singles title.

In the doubles bracket, Stanford will be represented by the duos of Burdette/Yelsey and Nyugen/Durkin.

The girls’ victories against Sacramento State and BYU pushed the No. 1 Cardinal’s overall record to 22-1. The team is currently on a 19-match winning streak; Stanford has not lost since early February when it fell to Georgia Tech, snapping an 89-match winning streak that spanned over three years.

Stanford may have a chance to get revenge against the Yellow Jackets in the finals of the team championships, provided that both teams get that far. NCAA tennis tends to be top-heavy, though, so it’s a viable possibility that the Cardinal will have a chance to avenge its early-season loss in the finals.

At this point, however, the Cardinal is not looking past any opponents. Under the business-like mentality of co-captain Yelsey and her bubbly, fellow co-captain Logar, Stanford is taking the NCAAs on a match-by-match basis.

“It’s a different state of mind,” Burdette said of the team’s entry into the Round of 16. “It’s go-time. It [the championship] is what we’ve worked for.”