May 18, 2007
No. 1 Stanford 4, No. 16 Vanderbilt 0
Notebook
THE postseason honors keep rolling in for Stanford. After being well-represented on the All-Pac-10 team with five selections in addition to the Coach of the Year, the Cardinal was honored with ITA Northwest Regional accolades.
Among those recognized: Theresa Logar (Senior Player of the Year), Lindsay Burdette (Rookie Player of the Year) and Celia Durkin (Player to Watch). In addition, Frankie Brennan was named Assistant Coach of the Year. National winners will be announced on May 22 in Athens, Ga. Regional award winners are finalists for the national awards.
FOR the first time in postseason play, Stanford received a strong start from Whitney Deason and Theresa Logar at No. 3 doubles.
With the doubles point becoming increasingly more important, that's an encouraging sign for the Cardinal. Deason and Logar started slow and did not finish each of the first two NCAA Tournament matches, but ran out to a quick 3-1 lead on Friday against Vanderbilt.
"It's very important for them to start strong, especially since our No. 2 team (Durkin and Nguyen) has not played together a lot lately. Whitney and Theresa are two of the best players at being able to turn it on when they need to in the tournament."
SHE might not have finished her match, but Lindsay Burdette was successful in getting rid of the jitters that come along with playing in front of family and friends.
Burdette, a native of Jackson, Ga., is Stanford's impressive freshman playing in her first NCAA Tournament. On Friday, Burdette battled Vanderbilt's Caroline Ferrell to a 6-6 score in the first set before the match was suspended. Supporting her was a group of about 10 family members, including sister Erin Burdette, a four-time All-American at Stanford.
"It was nice to get adjusted and get some of the jitters out," said Burdette. "It was a rough set against a really good player. This should help me be a little less nervous for Sunday."
FOR the animated and hard-nosed Theresa Logar, it would be easy to get frustrated. The Cardinal senior has played well enough to win but her first two NCAA Tournament matches were suspended after she had won the first set.
On Friday, Logar not only won but provided the clincher with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Vanderbilt's Amanda Fish.
"I really did not think I was going to finish today," said Logar. "I just had to stop looking at the scoreboard and just play. This may be the only match during the tournament I finish, so it feels good to be a part of the win."
Logar is now 27-9 overall this year, tied with Lindsay Burdette and Celia Durkin for the most Cardinal wins this year.
STANFORD has now captured the doubles point in 21 of its 24 matches this year. That includes eight doubles sweeps, the last coming on Apr. 7 against Washington when all three teams won by identical 8-2 margins. Not that Stanford has trouble playing from behind- the Cardinal was swept in all three doubles matches on two different occasions (Feb. 23 at Arizona State and Mar. 28 at UNLV) but ended up winning the match.
THE University of Georgia continues to impress with its media/staff meal. On Friday it was Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, a longstanding regional delicacy.