March 21, 2010
STANFORD, Calif.- Back on the court for the first time in two weeks, No. 11 Stanford posted a 6-1 victory over Cal Poly on Sunday afternoon at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Since its only loss of the season at UCLA last month, the Cardinal (10-1, 0-0 Pac-10) has now won three straight heading into a three-match road trip this week against Pepperdine, Arizona State and Arizona.
Unranked on the year despite taking a seven-match winning streak into Sunday's contest, Cal Poly (12-3, 5-1 Big West) gave Stanford all it could handle in doubles before the match turned into a rout.
Stanford has now won 158 matches in a row (128 in the regular season) at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium, recognized as the longest active home winning streak of any intercollegiate sport in NCAA Division I athletics. The last time the Cardinal lost a home match was back on Feb. 27, 1999, when No. 4 California pulled a 5-4 upset.
The Cardinal took a 1-0 in lead in doubles, claiming a hard-fought doubles point. After locking up an easy 8-1 win at the No. 3 spot, Cal Poly's top duo of Brittany Blalock and Suzie Matzenauer handed Stanford's Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette their first home loss since Mar. 7, 2009, with the Mustang tandem prevailing 8-5.
But Stanford's No. 2 team of Mallory Burdette and Stacy Tan grinded out a 9-8 (7) victory to secure the doubles point. Burdette and Tan led 7-2 before dropping six straight games, only to win the tiebreaker.
The Cardinal then rolled in singles, winning at five of the six spots. Mallory Burdette and Tan got on the scoreboard with wins early on, before Veronica Li coasted past Jocelyn Davis 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 6 position to secure the win.
Hilary Barte won her 14th consecutive match, defeating Matzenauer 7-5, 6-3 in a battle of No. 1 players. Barte is now 19-3 overall and 11-0 in duals this year.
DOUBLES
1) Blalock/Matzenauer (CP) d. No. 2 Barte/L. Burdette (STAN) 8-5
2) M. Burdette/Tan (STAN) d. Lee/Wong (CP) 9-8 (7)
3) McVeigh/Li (STAN) d. Filip/Ashley Pane (CP) 8-1
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
SINGLES
1) No. 8 Hilary Barte (STAN) d. No. 87 Suzie Matzenauer (CP) 7-5, 6-3
2) Brittany Blalock (CP) d. No. 40 Lindsay Burdette (STAN) 4-6, 6-1, (10-0)
3) Stacey Tan (STAN) d. Steffi Wong (CP) 6-1, 7-5
4) Mallory Burdette (STAN) d. Diane Filip (CP) 6-2, 6-0
5) Carolyn McVeigh (STAN) d. Alexa Lee (CP) 6-3, 7-6 (1)
6) Veronica Li (STAN) d. Jocelyn Davis (CP) 6-1, 6-2
Order of Finish: 4, 3, 6, 1, 2, 5