STANFORD, Calif. - No. 8 Stanford hits the road for a pair of matches this weekend, kicking off a stretch that features five of its final seven contests away from The Farm.
The Cardinal (12-1, 4-0 Pac-12) has won eight in a row and sits atop the conference standings but managed to drop three spots in this week's ITA poll. Stanford's only loss of the season was against No. 1 Florida in Gainesville and the Cardinal has been ranked as high as No. 4.
The rankings drop can be attributed to Stanford's light schedule last week, as the Cardinal defeated unranked Hawai'i 4-0 at home in its only action.
However, the win was notable, with head coach Lele Forood chalking up her 400th career victory. Forood, midway through her 17th season at the helm after serving as an assistant and associate head coach for the previous 14 years, improved to 400-38 (.913 winning percentage) in her career on The Farm. Forood has led the Cardinal to eight NCAA titles, 12 conference crowns and produced five NCAA singles champions and five NCAA doubles champions among her lengthy list of accolades.
Stanford next visits a pair of unranked conference foes, starting with Utah (7-4, 2-2 Pac-12) on Friday at 12:30 p.m. PT before traveling to Colorado (9-5, 1-2 Pac-12) on Sunday in a 9 a.m. PT tilt.
The Cardinal's entire singles lineup is ranked for a sixth straight week. Melissa Lord (19-2 overall, 10-1 duals) leads the pack at No. 14, while Emma Higuchi (22-3 overall, 11-0 duals) is Stanford's winningest player and checks in at No. 50.
Two doubles teams are ranked, led by Caroline Doyle and Lord (9-4 overall, 6-1 duals) at No. 47.