2024-25 Season In Review

STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford women's tennis finished its season, the first under Peter and Helen Bing Director of Women’s Tennis Frankie Brennan, with a 17-9 record, its 43rd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and its 42nd trip to the Round of 16.

The Cardinal battled injuries and professional departures all season and came up just short of making the quarterfinals for the 40th time, ending its campaign in a road Super Regional at No. 20 Oklahoma State, 4-3.

BATTLED ALL SEASON

Following a successful fall slate, Stanford entered the spring with an unsettled lineup. Of its top six, the Cardinal was without three for the majority of the dual season.

Alexis Blokhina, who had put together a 54-21 career record on The Farm, turned professional after appearing in her first NCAA Individual Championships in November. Katherine Hui, the 2024 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, was hampered by a wrist injury and did not play at all after a Feb. 9 dual against No. 9 Tennessee. Two-time All-American Alexandra Yepifanova did not play for an entire year following offseason shoulder surgery and made her season debut at the bottom of Stanford's lineup on April 11 at Wake Forest.

Despite the absence of three stalwarts, Stanford persevered and finished the year ranked No. 22 in the nation. After coming up just short of some signature wins with 4-3 losses to No. 7 North Carolina on April 4 and No. 12 NC State on April 13, the Cardinal registered its best performance of the season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on May 3, defeating 11^th-seeded host Texas Tech 4-1. Coming in at No. 12 in the ITA poll, the Red Raiders were the highest-ranked team the Cardinal beat in 2025 and its best true road victory since a 5-2 win at No. 9 California on April 19, 2024.

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP MARATHON

Stanford tallied another signature win in its first ACC Championship appearance in Cary, N.C. on April 17, beating No. 56 Miami in a four-hour marathon 4-3.

Yepifanova had a heroic third-set comeback at No. 5. Down 5-1, she fought off six match points to force a third tiebreak and beat Maria Paula Vargas for her first win of the season, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), which evened the dual 3-3.

Moments later, Valerie Glozman clinched for the Cardinal on court 2. She dropped the first set in an epic tiebreak, 13-11, won a second-set tiebreak 7-2 and powered through Jaquelyn Ogunwale in the third, 6-2.

CARDINAL, WHITE & BLUE

Stanford featured a pair of ITA All-Americans in singles, as Valerie Glozman and Connie Ma both earned national honors.

All-America honors were awarded to student-athletes that advanced to the round of 16 at the NCAA Individual Championships in November or finished in the top 20 of the final ITA singles rankings released last Wednesday.

Stanford’s top two met both those benchmarks, with Glozman making a run to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship and finishing ranked 10^th in the country and Ma appearing in the round of 16 in Waco and ending her career with a No. 14 national ranking.

Glozman put together a sensational debut campaign on The Farm and was voted the ACC Freshman of the Year for her efforts. She put together a 32-5 overall record, a 19-3 mark in duals, ended the year on an eight-match winning streak, including a perfect 3-0 in NCAA team competition at No. 2, and was 15-5 against ranked opponents.

Ma’s All-America honor is the third of her career (also 2022 and 2024) following a remarkable senior season. She was 29-5 overall, 17-1 in duals, and put together a career record of 131-28, including 68-14 in duals and 61-18 against ranked opponents. An All-ACC singles first-team selection this season, Ma was also named to the Academic All-America Division I first team for the second consecutive year.

Stanford was one of seven programs with multiple singles All-Americans and one of two in the ACC (North Carolina – 3). This was the third consecutive season that the Cardinal boasted multiple singles All-Americans, its longest stretch since a four-year run from 2011-14.

REGIONAL HONORS

Ma, Glozman and Valencia Xu were honored by the ITA when the organization announced its year-end regional awards on June 10. Ma was named the Northwest region’s Senior Player of the Year, Glozman was voted its Rookie of the Year and Xu collected its Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship award.

On the court, Xu wrapped up a Stanford career in which she went 93-28 overall, including 55-18 in duals, 12-12 against ranked opponents and a perfect 4-0 in NCAA team competition. She was ranked as high as 50^th in the country on Nov. 15, 2024 and was a two-time Academic All-American majoring in international relations, minoring in sociology and boasting a 4.03 GPA.

A two-time team captain, Xu put together a resume just as impressive off the court. She served as a student fellow at the Hoover Institution’s Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative and, last summer, worked on the Systems Navigator Project with the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office, providing support to clients charged with felonies as they transitioned between arraignment and case management public defenders. She was a research assistant at Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, assisting Professor Oriana Skylar Mastro with her book Upstart on China’s rise.

As a sophomore, Xu was an undergraduate editor for the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (Stanford Law School), assisting with editing legal scholarship for timely publication, on issues like Title IX and the death penalty. She participated in a summer internship in the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office in 2022, working with attorneys in defending clients accused of committing felony criminal offenses.

In the summer of 2023, Xu participated in ACE in South Africa, a three-week long immersive community service program with a cohort of 12 Stanford and Duke student-athletes, where she taught English and sports to children in the underprivileged, primarily Xhosa-speaking Langa Township.

FINAL ITA RANKINGS

In addition to Glozman and Ma, Caroline Driscoll also figured into the season's final ITA singles rankings, checking in at No. 94.

On January 8, the Cardinal announced the rare (for Stanford) midseason transfer in Driscoll. The two-time All-Summit League performer at Denver has a career singles record of 68-24, including 45-16 in duals, and was 15-6 this season. Moving up to court 3 singles, she picked up her first ranked win of the year on April 5 and another in the regular-season finale at NC State on April 13, dispatching then-No. 109 Gabriella Broadfoot 6-2, 6-4.

In doubles, Glozman and Ma finishef the year ranked 21st. They were named to the All-ACC Doubles second team and appeared in the NCAA Doubles Championship in November.

BRIGHT FUTURE

On Feb. 4, Stanford announced its latest signing class of prep standouts Alyssa Ahn, Monika Ekstrand and Tianmei Wang. All three are blue-chip recruits according to the Tennis Recruiting Network and among the nation’s top five high school seniors that will enroll on college campuses this fall. Stanford recruiting class is ranked No. 1 nationally.

STANFORD'S STAFF

While no stranger to The Farm, Stanford was in its first season with Frankie Brennan as the program’s Peter and Helen Bing Director of Women's Tennis. The third-generation coach was hired to replace the legendary Lele Forood on  Sept. 11. Forood announced she was stepping down following 24 seasons and 10 NCAA titles as head coach on Aug. 20.

Brennan has been on staff at Stanford for 30 seasons and a part of 12 of Stanford’s record 20 NCAA championships. The Cardinal has gone 717-80 during his tenure, including a 17-9 mark has head coach.

On Sept. 19, Brennan hired Stanford alumna Janice Shin as his assistant coach. A two-time NCAA team champion during her playing career from 2018-21, Shin was a key contributor on Stanford’s 2018 and 2019 NCAA title teams, going a perfect 8-0 in postseason matches and earning NCAA All-Tournament Team recognition at No. 5 singles both years.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Name	Honors
Caroline Driscoll	College Sports Communicators Academic All-District
Valerie Glozman	ITA All-American - Singles ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year ACC Freshman of the Year All-ACC Singles first team All-ACC Doubles second team, pairing with Connie Ma Three-time ACC Freshman of the Week (April 15; April 1; March 11) Two-time ACC Doubles Team of the Week w/ Connie Ma (April 15; Feb. 11)
Connie Ma	ITA All-American - Singles ITA Northwest Region Senior Player of the Year All-ACC Singles first team All-ACC Doubles second team, pairing with Valerie Glozman College Sports Communicators Academic All-America first team College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Two-time ACC Doubles Team of the Week w/ Valerie Glozman (April 15; Feb. 11)
Valencia Xu	ITA Northwest Region Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award College Sports Communicators Academic All-District