MALIBU, Calif. – Stanford’s season came to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinal lost to host and No. 11 Pepperdine 4-0.
It’s just the third time since 1982 that Stanford has failed to win multiple rounds in the NCAA Tournament – also 1985 and 2021. The Cardinal battled injuries all season and was limited to a roster of seven healthy players for most of the year, without its top two in Valerie Glozman and Alexis Blokhina.
Pepperdine won doubles and picked up singles victories on courts one, two and six to oust Stanford from the tournament. The Waves were also the last team to knock out the Cardinal before Super Regionals in 2021.
The Cardinal’s No. 1 ranked freshman class played on the top three courts in the postseason – Monika Ekstrand, Alyssa Ahn and Tianmei Wang.
Ekstrand became the first freshman to play exclusively on the top court since Connie Ma in 2021-22. Ma went 15-5 that season. Ekstrand was 15-6 this year. Ahn went 12-5 on court two and was 11-2 against conference foes. Wang finished her first year on The Farm by winning nine of her final 10 matches.
The Cardinal ended its season with a 14-11 record and its 44th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance
No. 11 Pepperdine 4 - No. 30 Stanford 2
DOUBLES
1) #16 Ziva Falkener/Sonja Zhiyenbayeva (PEPP) d. Caroline Driscoll/Monika Ekstrand (STAN) 6-3
2) Alyssa Ahn/Tianmei Wang (STAN) d. Anastasiia Grechkina/Chantal Sauvant (PEPP) 6-2
3) Shihomi Leong/Duru Soke (PEPP) d. Sein Myoung/Morgan Shaffer (STAN) 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1
SINGLES
1) #40 Ziva Falkner (PEPP) d. #32 Monika Ekstrand (STAN) 6-1, 6-3
2) #35 Anastasiia Grechkina (PEPP) d. #56 Alyssa Ahn (STAN) 6-3, 6-3
3) Tianmei Wang (STAN) led Sonja Zhiyenbayeva (PEPP) 7-5, 0-4 unf.
4) Chantal Sauvant (PEPP) d. Caroline Driscoll (STAN) 6-2, 3-2 unf.
5) #121 Duru Soke (PEPP) d. Sein Myoung (STAN) 6-2, 5-2 unf.
6) Alexia Harmon (PEPP) d. Emma Sun (STAN) 6-3, 6-2
Order of Finish: 1, 6, 2