April 22, 2003
BERKELEY, Calif. - The top-ranked Stanford women's tennis team clinched its 16th straight Pac-10 title with a thrilling 4-3 win over fifth-ranked California on Tuesday afternoon at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley.
Stanford, which is 107-3 over the last four years, finishes the regular season 20-1 overall and 8-0 in the Pacific-10 Conference, while the Golden Bears dropped to 19-5 and 6-2.
The singles competition could not have been more evenly matched, as the two teams combined for nine players ranked in the nation's top 120. But it was Stanford's depth from top to bottom on the singles ladder that proved to be the difference.
Stanford scored the first point of the dual by winning the doubles point with victories at Nos. 1 and 2, and extended the lead to 2-0 thanks to sophomore Story Tweedie-Yates (Redmond, WA) at No. 6 singles. Tweedie-Yates defeated Brooke Borisoff 6-0, 6-2.
After Cal cut the deficit to 2-1, freshman Alice Barnes (Cambridge, U.K.) moved the Cardinal one point away from yet another Pac-10 title with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 4 over Jieun Jacobs.But the Golden Bears answered with wins at both No. 1 and No. 2 to tie the match at 3-3.
The dual then came down to the No. 3 singles match between Stanford sophomore Erin Burdette (Jackson, GA) and California's Catherine Lynch. After Lynch won the first set 6-3, Burdette responded by taking the second set 6-3. The Stanford sophomore, who was a NCAA Singles Semifinalist a year ago, then dominated from the net in the third set to win 6-2 and give the Cardinal the victory.
Stanford returns to action Thursday through Sunday, April 24-27 at the Pac-10 Individual Championships in Ojai. The event is comprised of individual matches between members of Pac-10 Conference schools, with a singles and doubles champion to be crowned in both the championship and invitational flights.
#1 Stanford 4, #5 California 3
Singles
No. 1 - #7 Raquel Kops-Jones (C) d. #4 Amber Liu, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0
No. 2 - #31 Christina Fusano (C) d. #14 Lauren Barnikow, 6-1, 7-6 (5)
No. 3 - #35 Erin Burdette (S) d. #97 Catherine Lynch, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2*
No. 4 - #9 Alice Barnes (S) d. #53 Jieun Jacobs, 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 - Jody Scheldt (C) d. #119 Emilia Anderson, 6-1, 6-2
No. 6 - Story Tweedie-Yates (S) d. Brooke Borisoff, 6-0, 6-2
*Clinched match
Doubles (Stanford wins point)
No. 1 - #1 Lauren Barnikow/Erin Burdette (S) d. #3 Christina Fusano/Raquel Kops-Jones, 8-6
No. 2 - Alice Barnes/Amber Liu (S) d. Jieun Jacobs/Jody Scheldt, 9-7
No. 3 - Nicole Havlicek/Catherine Lynch (C) d. Emilia Anderson/Story Tweedie-Yates, 8-3
Records - #1 Stanford 20-1 overall (8-0 Pacific-10 Conference), #5 California 19-5 (6-2).