STANFORD, Calif. - No. 13 Stanford and No. 19 USC will square off for the conference title on Wednesday afternoon in Ojai, California, adding some sizzle to this year’s Pac-12 Championships.
Stanford is seeking its 25th conference crown overall and first since sharing the hardware with USC back in 2012. With a victory, the Cardinal – which last won the conference title outright in 2011 as a member of the Pac-10 – would earn the Pac-12’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The neutral-site matchup between Stanford (13-5, 8-1 Pac-12) and USC (12-4, 7-0 Pac-12) became necessary to determine the Pac-12 regular season champion, as the March 11 contest on The Farm was cancelled due to rain.
Stanford, which also owns signature wins over Florida, TCU and UCLA, most likely locked up a host bid for the NCAA Championships first and second rounds thanks to last week’s upset of Cal. Hosting duties are limited to the nation’s top 16 programs as determined by the selection committee. However, the Cardinal jumped only four spots in the national rankings while the Golden Bears remained No. 1.
Working in Stanford’s favor against USC on Wednesday is the lineup addition of Carol Zhao, who would have been unavailable when the teams were scheduled to meet back in March. The 2015 NCAA Singles runner-up and three-time All-American, Zhao missed the entire fall and much of the spring as she had been training with the Canadian National Team and competing in pro tournaments. Stanford is 7-1 with Zhao in the lineup and 6-4 without.
However, Zhao has been only one piece to the puzzle lately for Stanford, which – to the surprise of nobody – is once again firing on all cylinders at the most important time of the season. The Cardinal has won six of its last seven, including a 4-3 upset of No. 1 California, handing the Golden Bears their first loss of the season.
Krista Hardebeck (21-5 overall, 17-1 duals) has won 15 in a row, the longest streak by a Stanford player since Zhao strung together 15 consecutive victories last spring. Meanwhile, Caroline Lampl (20-4 overall, 15-2 duals) has clinched a team-high five matches, including last week against California’s Olivia Hauger that netted the Cardinal freshman Pac-12 Player of the Week honors. Lampl is Stanford’s first Pac-12 Player of the Year since Kristie Ahn on Feb. 4, 2014.
Caroline Doyle (19-8 overall, 12-5 duals) and Taylor Davidson (18-11 overall, 9-7 duals) are also inching close to the 20-win mark but their value is even more noticeable as the nation’s fourth-ranked doubles team.
Meanwhile, Thursday signals the beginning of the Pac-12 Championships, which features a 32-player singles draw and 16-team doubles field. Stanford has produced 11 conference singles champions but is seeking its first since Ahn (2011) and Nicole Gibbs (2012) went back-to-back. In doubles, the Cardinal has totaled eight winners, including Davidson/Zhao beating Doyle/Ellen Tsay in last year’s all-Stanford affair.
Sunday’s singles championship (10 a.m. PT) and doubles championship (1 p.m. PT) will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Networks.