_AAB0188_AAB0188
Women's Tennis

Rare Road Lid-Lifter

No. 1 Stanford Cardinal (0-0, 0-0 Pac-12)
at
San Jose State Spartans (0-0, 0-0 Mountain West)
San Jose, Calif.
Facebook |Twitter| Instagram

 

STANFORD, Calif. - No. 1 Stanford opens its dual match season at San Jose State on Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m.

Stanford will begin its season on the road for the first time since Jan. 20, 2001, when the Cardinal blanked Oregon 7-0 in Eugene.

It's also the first meeting between Stanford and San Jose State in 30 years, with the Cardinal visiting the Spartans for the first time.

Stanford holds down the top spot in the rankings for the third straight week, followed by No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 North Carolina.

Sophomore Emily Arbuthnott enters the spring with a team-best 10-5 overall record while freshmen Michaela Gordon and Janice Shin both check in at 9-1. Gordon, Stanford's highest ranked player at No. 13, defeated Arbuthnott 7-5, 6-2 to capture the ITA Northwest Regional Championships title back in October.

Arbuthnott and Gordon also make up Stanford's top doubles team, with the duo compiling an 8-1 record and winning the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in November.

The most decorated program in women's college tennis with 19 national championships (18 NCAA, 1 AIAW), Stanford produced a runner-up finish in 2017, falling 4-1 to Florida and coming up one step short in its bid to repeat as NCAA champions. The Gators were responsible for two of the Cardinal's three losses.

The Cardinal, which improved to 147-19 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, reached the national final despite being seeded No. 7, strung together a pair of 11-match winning streaks and maintained a spot among the nation's top-15 for the majority of the season.