April 17, 2007
Updated Statistics (as of Apr. 17)
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STANFORD, Calif.- No. 1 Stanford can claim the Pac-10 title outright with a victory at No. 9 California in the final match of the regular season on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley.
Stanford currently leads USC by a half-game in the Pac-10 standings, so a victory earns the Cardinal its 20th conference title while a loss coupled with a Trojan win would represent a co-championship.
Stanford enters the week at 19-1 overall and 7-0 in the Pac-10, riding an impressive 16-match winning streak. Two of those victories were 6-1 decisions over the Golden Bears (19-5, 5-2 Pac-10), as the Cardinal won at home back on Mar. 3 just one month after a quarterfinal triumph at the National Team Indoor Championships in Madison, Wis.
Sporting a 5-0 road record this year, Stanford is coming off an impressive Southern California sweep of No. 13 UCLA and No. 7 USC last weekend. Both contests ended in 4-3 results, with the Cardinal receiving singles-clinching victories from Anne Yelsey and Whitney Deason against the Bruins and Trojans, respectively.
Those victories helped cement Stanford's status as the nation's top-ranked team this week. The top-10 is rounded out by: No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 6 Clemson, No. 7 Northwestern, No. 8 USC, No. 9 California and No. 10 North Carolina.
A big factor in Stanford's sweep was the solid singles play at the top of the lineup. Senior Theresa Logar went 2-0 at the No. 1 position, defeating No. 22 Riza Zalameda of UCLA and No. 12 Lindsey Nelson of USC by identical 6-4 margins to earn her second Pac-10 Player of the Week honor of the year.
The victories were especially significant for Logar, considering she lost to both players in back-to-back matches at home in February.
Logar's two wins make her the team leader in dual match victories (17-3) and she is now 23-7 overall. She has won six matches in a row, owns a 14-3 mark against Pac-10 opponents and is 12-3 against nationally-ranked foes.
The only other Stanford netter to finish the weekend undefeated was fellow senior Anne Yelsey at the No. 2 spot. Yelsey's 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over No. 49 Tracy Lin clinched Stanford's 4-3 win at UCLA and her 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 10 Sarah Fansler of USC was her 11th in a row overall.
Logar and Yelsey both appear in this weekend's ITA rankings, checking in at Nos. 9 and 17, respectively. Other Stanford players include No. 14 Celia Durkin, No. 15 Jessica Nguyen, No. 78 Lindsay Burdette and No. 105 Whitney Deason.
In doubles action, Stanford's No. 3 team of Deason and Logar continues to surge. The duo was 2-0 last weekend, clinching the doubles point in both matches to improve its record to 15-5 overall. Deason and Logar have won six straight and own an 11-2 mark against Pac-10 opponents.
Interestingly enough, they are unranked. Stanford's top team of Burdette and Yelsey checks in at No. 25 while the combination of Durkin and Nguyen ranks No. 37 this week.