May 16, 2013
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Senior Stacey Tan is hoping to extend her college playing career for a couple more weeks.
A native of Lakewood, Calif., Tan will be returning to the postseason for the final time when NCAA competition gets underway on Friday morning. When the team portion is finished, Tan is slated to also compete in the doubles event. A member of Stanford's NCAA championship team in 2010, Tan then earned All-America honors in 2011 and was awarded a spot on the All-Pac-12 Second Team last year. Tan has played at every position in the singles lineup with the exception of No. 1 and 6 during her career. She has mainly held down the No. 4 spot this season, and enters Friday with a career records of 108-35 overall and 71-16 in dual match play. Tan has excelled outside of singles, having racked up 103 career doubles wins. |
THE STUDENT on...
You are on track to graduate next month with a degree in Science, Technology & Society. Talk a little bit about your major and interests in the subject.
"There were quite a few Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) classes that really interested me early on. That's one of the reasons I eventually ended up going into Science, Technology & Society. I had declared my major at the end of sophomore year and knew if I tried to go into MS&E at that point, starting fresh, it would probably take too long to finish. But Science, Technology & Society has allowed me to also take a lot of MS&E classes. I really enjoyed MS&E 178, a class that was called The Spirit of Entrepreneurship and taught by Heidi Roizen. That has to be one of my favorite classes."
The next month leading up to graduation will certainly fly by. But you seem to be ahead of the game already.
"Next January, I will begin working for Toyota in Southern California within their Information Systems Department. I had completed an internship with them last summer and this past September, they offered a position to me right before I came back to school. I enjoyed the internship experience and the staff was really friendly and willing to help. It actually reminded me a lot of Stanford, in that regard. It's located in Torrance, which is a 20-30 minute drive from my house so the location is great. It's a training position designed to rotate between different departments within Information Systems, so I will be able to experience a bit of everything and see what I like. After that, I think there may be an opportunity to apply for a specific position within the organization."
Most people forget that tennis is a year-round sport. The dual match season takes place in the spring, but you are also participating in fall tournaments. That's a lot of missed class time before taking into account any summer competition.
"It requires a lot of time management. I think it helped going through it high school, where I was traveling for junior tournaments and pro-circuit events that resulted sometimes in weeks of missed class. That helped in the transition for college, although the academic level is much more increased. It's about prioritizing and making sure to give yourself enough time. Thanksgiving break usually becomes huge, because that's a chance to get a lot of work done. Coming back from NCAA's is really tough because then it is really a grind before finals. At that point, we've maybe already been gone from campus one or two weeks. Although since we are done practicing, there is more time to devote to office hours. So it's important to stay on top of things and meeting with professors becomes really important. On the road, we all try to help each other out."
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THE ATHLETE on...
As a sophomore in 2011, you became only the 10th unseeded player to reach the NCAA singles final. Ranked No. 43 in the nation at the time, you were the lowest-ranked player to reach the championship match in 13 years. What better example of Stanford's trademark depth over the years- that its No. 5 player could compete for an NCAA crown.
"It was definitely a great experience. I wasn't expecting to even get into the tournament, since I had played at No. 5 most of the year. It's always tough to get your ranking high enough playing at a lower position, and when you do maybe match up against a ranked player, they are generally in the lower half. Luckily, I did well at the Pac-10 Championships a few weeks before, beating some top-ranked players to reach the semifinals and that helped boost my ranking to get into NCAA's. I kind of took it one match at a time, basically thinking it was great experience just to make the field. I was comfortable playing at home and it felt like a normal match. It didn't feel like the NCAA's until the last two rounds when I was suddenly playing on the main court inside the stadium and there were a lot more people watching. That's when the nerves kicked in."
You also contributed a point in singles at the No. 4 spot during Stanford's 4-3 victory over Florida to capture the 2010 NCAA championship. It's a feeling several players in this program have been able to experience, as only one four-year class (1993-96) did not win at least one championship during its time on The Farm.
"Honestly, it was very unexpected in 2010 and we were definitely underdogs going into the tournament (Stanford was seeded No. 8). In the previous two seasons, we had been eliminated in the NCAA's by Baylor. So beating them in the quarterfinals gave our team confidence and felt like we had cleared sort of a hurdle. Also, everyone elevated their game really well and once the matches started, different players contributed. That was a huge determining factor. Each person was focused on their own court. It just all fell into place. We also had great leadership that year, led by Lindsay (Burdette), who was our only senior at the time."
Doubles has been such a strength for us this year. You and sophomore Ellen Tsay have been a big part of that as the No. 2 team, chalking up a team-best 29-7 overall record and 20-2 dual match mark. Then again, it's the second full season playing together as a team, and that's probably a distinct advantage in chemistry and communication.
"At the beginning of the year, we had a stretch with some losses where we maybe were overanalyzing a lot of the little things. We tried to think back about how we succeeded last year, with a serious attitude but having fun at the same time. Once we got back to that mindset, it really helped us out a lot. The experience of playing together last year helped us move on to this year. Ellen is pretty tall and has a longer wingspan. So we're good when I'm pushing the opponent back to the baseline with serving or ground strokes and she's able to pick off volleys with that long reach. Lately, especially last weekend, we have been feeling confident and comfortable. If she happened to switch, I was there instinctively covering for her. We are hoping to keep it going."
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- Brian Risso, Athletics Communications/Media Relations