STANFORD, Calif.- Stanford's top doubles team of sophomore Hilary Barte and junior Lindsay Burdette will play for a national title on Monday morning at the NCAA Championships at College Station, Texas.
Barte and Burdette outlasted Tennessee's Natalie Pluskota and Caitlin Whoriskey 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) on Sunday afternoon in the semifinal round, advancing Monday's championship match at 8 a.m. PT.
Barte and Burdette will face a familiar opponent in Monday's final: California's top doubles team of sophomore Mari Andersson and freshman Jana Juricova, ranked No. 7 nationally. These squads have split two meetings this year, with the Golden Bear duo winning 9-8 (2) back on Mar. 7 at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium and the Cardinal tandem responding with an 8-4 victory on Apr. 18 in the regular season finale at Berkeley.
Barte and Burdette are bidding to become Stanford's first NCAA doubles champions since 2005, when Alice Barnes and Erin Burdette defeated Amber Liu and Anne Yelsey 6-3, 6-4 in an all-Stanford final. Five Cardinal doubles teams have been crowned NCAA champions, with victories coming in 1984 (Linda Gates, Elise Burgin), 1985 (Linda Gates, Leigh Anne Eldredge), 1990 (Meredith McGrath, Teri Whitlinger), 2002 (Lauren Kalvaria, Gabriela Lastra) and 2005 (Alice Barnes, Erin Burdette).
On Sunday against Tennessee's top doubles team of Pluskota and Whoriskey, ranked No. 10 in the country, Barte and Burdette hung on to win their second straight three-setter. After a split of the first two sets, Stanford and Tennessee alternated games in the third set before heading to a tiebreaker.
Pluskota and Whoriskey jumped out to an early 3-1 lead before going in front 4-3 after the changeover. But Barte and Burdette tallied the next four points to clinch the tiebreaker 7-4.
Ranked as the No. 8 doubles team in the country, Barte and Burdette are now 27-7 overall this year. The pair has been extremely hot recently, riding a 13-match winning streak while posting a 15-6 mark against nationally-ranked opponents.
NCAA Doubles Championship: No. 8 Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette (STAN)
Round of 16: No. 8 Barte/Burdette (STAN) d. No. 32 Lesniak/Malyarschikova (SMU) 6-2, 6-0
Quarterfinals: No. 8 Barte/Burdette (STAN) d. No. 24 Lui/Rose (NW) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
Semifinals: No. 8 Barte/Burdette (STAN) d. No. 10 Pluskota/Whoriskey (TENN) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4)
NCAA Doubles Championship: No. 7 Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova (CAL)
Round of 16: No. 7 Andersson/Juricova (CAL) d. No. 19 Kissell/Vallverdu (MIA) 7-5, 6-4
Quarterfinals: No. 7 Andersson/Juricova (CAL) d. No. 1 Kucerkova/Petukhova (FS) 7-6 (1), 6-3
Semifinals: No. 7 Andersson/Juricova (CAL) d. No. 13 Borsanyi/Broosova (BAY) 6-4, 6-3
QUOTES
Lindsay Burdette"I definitely didn't expect them to come up with the volleys they came up with. They played unbelievable. We had to play really solid to beat them. In this tournament, I never thought that we would play a team more aggressive than we were, and they were. We are not use to that."
"First we had to figure out that they had studied us. They were on to our moves, and when we moved and when we went and when we didn't from the beginning of the match. We just had to decide how we were going to counter that and take away what they were doing well, while also capitalizing on what we were doing well. So we just had to adjust, and it took a little bit of time."
"When Hilary is serving, I had so many easy volleys and easy setups because she serves really well and made a ton of first serves from the very beginning of the match. Not only were we winning those points, but it also gave me confidence to win other volleys as well."
Hilary Barte"I think that both teams play a very similar style of doubles, which it is rare for us to play a team like that. It took an adjustment for us, too. I think that we just played solid. It wasn't anything special, no tricks or anything, we just played solid."
"Having Lindsay at the net takes a lot of pressure off my serve. It allows me to swing a little bit more freely on my first serve because I know she is up there, and she has great hands. I don't have to do anything special."
Natalie Pluskota, Tennessee"It's so hard to be mad about a match like that, because we put everything into it. Props to Stanford. They came up with some great shots a few times. Yeah, we had chances, but they came up with the goods."
"They were returning really well. I knew that I couldn't just lay the ball on the court. I wasn't even thinking about my serve, because when I do, I miss. I just knew that I needed to go up after it, and as time went on more and more, I kept collapsing on my serve and it came out in the end."
Caitlyn Whoriskey,Tennessee"The whole match was pretty much whoever took it to their opponent. We had nothing wrong to say about what we did. We had our chances. They came up lucky on a couple of shots, and good luck to them."
"Both sets it came down to one break serve. Even going into the tiebreaker, whoever came up with a better return was going to set up the point for their team. It was pretty much like yesterday. We tried getting big serves and getting into a grove on the returns and there's nothing you can do about that. It was pretty well played on both sides."
"Hilary is a lefty, so her serves are going to be more difficult to return. She came up with pretty good returns there at the end. I think the last two games in the third set, she had a little rough patch. She was the craftier of the two. We knew Lindsay was going to be more solid and try to get the ball through us, and Hilary was going to try move us and make plays. It was just a matter of making up our minds to see where we wanted to hit."