STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford women's tennis finished its season, the second under Paul A. Violich Director of Women’s Tennis Frankie Brennan, with a 14-11 record and made its 44th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
BATTLED ALL SEASON
The Cardinal battled injuries all season and was limited to a roster of seven healthy bodies for most of the year, without top players in Valerie Glozman and Alexis Blokhina. Stanford's singles lineup included three freshmen, Monika Ekstrand at No. 1, Alyssa Ahn at No. 2 and Tianmei Wang at No. 4, and a first-year transfer in Sein Myoung at No. 5. Senior Caroline Driscoll, in her second season at Stanford, played No. 3 singles and No. 6 was split between senior Emma Sun and sophomore Morgan Shaffer.
Despite the challenges, Stanford built momentum throughout the year and picked up a pair of resume wins over No. 23 Cal and No. 25 SMU in the final two weeks of competition before NCAAs to secure its postseason berth.
The then-No. 47 Cardinal swept Cal on the road on April 7 for its highest-ranked victory of the season, surpassing a 4-0 win over then-No. 59 Georgia Tech on February 20, and pushed Stanford’s all-time record against the Golden Bears to 83-16, including 36-9 in Berkeley.
In the third round of the ACC Championship, and just four days after closing out the regular season with a 4-1 loss at SMU, Stanford knocked off the No. 25 Mustangs 4-3, with the clincher coming from Alyssa Ahn at No. 2, the first of her career.
Stanford’s season came to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on May 2. The Cardinal lost to host and No. 11 Pepperdine 4-0. It was just the third time since 1982 that Stanford failed to win multiple rounds in the NCAA Tournament – also 1985 and 2021.
The Cardinal finished the season at No. 28 in the ITA rankings.
CARDINAL, WHITE & BLUE
Valerie Glozman was an ITA Division I All-American in singles for the second consecutive season.
Limited during the dual season due to injury, the sophomore qualified for her second career All-America honor by winning the ITA All-American Championship in September, beating Carmen Herea of Texas in the final, 6-2, 6-3.
She became the first champion from Stanford since Hilary Barte in 2010 and the fourth all-time, joining Patty Fendick (1987), Sandra Birch (1989, 1990) and Barte. Her victory also edged the Cardinal in front of Florida for the most ITA All-American women's singles titles of all time with five.
Glozman did not play singles in the spring and was limited to a handful of appearances in doubles for the Cardinal. In her two seasons thus far, Glozman is 38-6 overall, 19-6 in duals, 20-6 against nationally-ranked opponents, and 3-0 in NCAA team competition.
REGIONAL HONORS
Monika Ekstrand and Caroline Driscoll were honored by the ITA when the organization announced its year-end regional awards on June 9. Ekstrand was named the Northwest region’s Rookie of the Year and Driscoll collected its Cissie Leary Sportsmanship award.
Ekstrand recently concluded a standout debut campaign, finishing her freshman season as the No. 40 singles player in the country, with a 21-9 overall record and a 15-6 mark in duals. She was one of two freshmen on the All-ACC Singles first team and played exclusively at the No. 1 spot all season, the first Cardinal freshman to do that since three-time All-American Connie Ma in 2022.
Ekstrand led the team with six clinchers and was the first freshman to pace Stanford in that category since Emily Arbuthnott in 2017. She was a two-time ACC Co-Freshman of the Week and went 9-5 against ranked opponents across both the fall and spring seasons.
Ekstrand is the Cardinal’s 13th ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year and fourth in the past five years (Valerie Glozman – 2025; Katherine Hui – 2024; Connie Ma – 2022).
On the court, Driscoll just wrapped up a career in which she went 86-36 overall, including 56-24 in duals. After playing her first two collegiate seasons at Denver, she transferred to Stanford and went 33-18 in singles for the Cardinal and was 26-14 in duals. Driscoll was ranked as high as 58th in the nation on Aug. 26, 2025, and was a two-time Academic All-District selection majoring in political science and boasting a 3.79 GPA.
A team captain this past season, Driscoll served as an Athlete-to-Athlete mentor, tutoring a cohort of young tennis athletes, providing individualized guidance on skill development, strategy and mental toughness. She was the sole representative of the women's tennis team at Student-Athlete Advisory Committee forums, communicating key issues and feedback to the Director of Athletics and executive staff to help shape athletic and academic policies.
Back in her hometown of Brookline, Massachusetts she volunteered at Sportsmen's Tennis and Enrichment Center, tutoring individual students ages 5–12 in Boston through the ‘School to Sportsmen’s’ program, providing academic support and building long-term confidence in children. Driscoll also led tennis instruction for young students as part of the community outreach program, teaching fundamentals to teach discipline and encourage a love for the game
An analyst with Stanford Management Group, Driscoll performing market and financial analysis for client companies, developing data-driven growth and strategy recommendations in a student-run consulting environment. She was also a member of the intern cohort at Rose Grove Capital last summer, gaining exposure to hedge fund operations and various investment vehicles.
Driscoll is the program’s seventh winner of the ITA Northwest Region Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award, along with Connie Ma (2024), Sara Choy (2023, 2022), Emma Higuchi (2020), Veronica Li (2012) and Amber Liu (2006).
FINAL ITA RANKINGS
In addition to Ekstrand, Valerie Glozman and Alyssa Ahn also figured into the season's final ITA singles rankings, checking in at Nos. 37 and 55. Ahn also teamed up with fellow freshman Tianmei Wang in doubles and the duo made their debut appearance in the season's last rankings at No. 74.
Ahn was 22-8 overall in her debut season, 12-5 in duals, and went 10-3 after February 1. She was 6-3 in three setters, 11-2 against ACC opponents and 7-6 against nationally ranked opponents.
ARRILLAGA TENNIS CENTER
Stanford opened its new home, the Arrillaga Tennis Center, with a 4-0 win over visiting Virginia Tech on April 3. The new facility was a two-year project that includes 12 outdoor courts with a seating capacity of 1,005, a spectator capacity of 1,500, and over 12,410 square feet of team space. A ceremony dedicating the center and ceremonial ribbon cutting took place after the match, preceding the men’s dual against No. 3 Wake Forest, which the Cardinal won 4-3.
FANTASTIC FALL
In addition to Valerie Glozman winning the ITA Women's All-American singles title in late September, a number of Cardinal had standout falls.
Alyssa Ahn burst onto the scene in her second tournament for Stanford, winning the ITA Northwest Regional Championships singles title in mid-October with a 6-0, 6-1 throttling California's Naomi Xu. Ahn became the second consecutive freshman winner of the tournament for the Cardinal, following Glozman in 2024. Stanford has produced the tournament singles champion in 13 of the last 15 years.
Both Glozman and Ahn qualified for the NCAA Single Championship in Orlando in November with Glozman the event's No. 1 seed.
STRONG SUMMER
It was a strong summer for the Cardinal, highlighted by Stanford participation at the US Open.
Glozman and Ahn both earned main draw wild cards, Glozman by winning the women's singles title at the American Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs in June and Ahn by winning the singles title at the USTA Billie Jean King Girls' 18s National Championships.
Ekstrand received a women's qualifying draw wild card, while Wang received a wild card into the girls' singles main draw.
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
| Name | Honors |
|---|---|
| Alyssa Ahn |
All-ACC Singles Third Team |
| Caroline Driscoll | ITA Northwest Region Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award College Sports Communicators Academic All-District ACC Co-Doubles Team of the Week w/ Monika Ekstrand (Feb. 24) |
| Monika Ekstrand | ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year All-ACC Singles First Team Two-time ACC Co-Freshman of the Week (Feb. 17; Feb. 24) ACC Co-Doubles Team of the Week w/ Caroline Driscoll (Feb. 24) |
| Valerie Glozman | ITA All-American - Singles |
| Sein Myoung | College Sports Communicators Academic All-District |
| Emma Sun | College Sports Communicators Academic All-District |
| Tianmei Wang | ACC Freshman of the Week (Jan. 20) |