University of Washington
Stanford
Huskies Drop Intense Match To Unbeaten Cardinal
March 04, 2012 | Women's Tennis
March 4, 2012
SEATTLE - The Husky women's tennis team can look back on today as indicative of the effort they'll need to summon each time out to fight its way through the loaded Pac-12 Conference. Playing its Pac-12 opener against one of the nation's top teams, the Stanford Cardinal, the Huskies (6-4, 0-1 Pac-12) gave themselves a real chance at what could have been a massive upset, but Stanford (8-0, 2-0 Pac-12) pulled away late for a 6-1 victory at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
The final score did not reflect the intensity of the match. Midway through the singles matches, the Huskies were leading or even on just about every singles court, but only freshman Riko Shimizu was able to close out her match, a 7-6, 6-1 victory at the No. 6 position over Natalie Dillon. The Cardinal won the last three matches in third sets.
"Other than a 4-3 match (in 2010) that was the most competitive we've been with them all the way down the line," said Head Coach Jill Hultquist. "It sucks to lose 6-1, but with that attitude, the way they came out after the doubles point, we would never have lost to Texas A&M or St. Mary's because it was a totally different team out there. That's how we have to come out against everyone, and let them know we're not going away."
Washington took three of the six first sets in singles and at that time senior Denise Dy was opening up a second set lead after losing the first, so things looked promising. Stanford got a break on a critical overrule by the chair umpire at court two, with sophomore Andjela Nemcevic on a comeback against 7th-ranked Mallory Burdette. Nemcevic had won three straight games and was serving at 4-4, but after calling a Burdette shot long, Nemcevic was overruled and Burdette went on to break serve and then hold for the 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Shimizu then got UW on the board with her win to make it 2-1 Stanford. At fifth singles, freshman Julija Lukac lost a long, close first set then Stanford's Veronica Li pulled away for a 7-5, 6-2 win. The Huskies still had a chance on the final three courts, but 40th-ranked Stacey Tan clinched it by coming back to defeat senior Samantha Smith, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.
14th-ranked senior Denise Dy, who just began practicing again on Friday after she has been only playing matches due to a wrist injury, was trading winners at No. 1 singles against 8th-ranked Nicole Gibbs. The two split the first two sets, Gibbs winning the first, 6-3, and Dy winning the second, 6-3. Gibbs took a 5-2 lead in the third set, but Dy held and then broke serve at love to get back to 4-5. She took a 30-0 lead on serve but played a couple loose points and let Gibbs back in. A wide backhand on break point gave Gibbs the 6-4 third set win.
The final match was a freshman duel between Capucine Gregoire and 53rd-ranked Ellen Tsay of Stanford. Gregoire needed six set points on serve to close out the first set, but she did, 6-4. Tsay came back in the second set to break serve in the 10th game and win that set, 6-4. At that point the Cardinal had just clinched the match so the two played the 10-point tiebreak instead of the full third set. They were tied at 7-7 but Tsay won the last three points for the 10-7 win.
The Cardinal were too tough in doubles play. Dy and Smith went against Burdette and Gibbs, the nation's No. 1-ranked doubles team, and fell, 8-1. At second doubles Nemcevic and Gregoire also dropped an 8-1 decision to Tan and Tsay. At third doubles, the freshman tandem of Lukac and Shimizu broke early for a 2-1 lead, but Ahn and Li came back for an 8-3 victory.
The Huskies will have a week off before 7th-ranked California visits Seattle for a Pac-12 dual on Friday, March 16.
Washington Women's Tennis
Nordstrom Tennis Center - Seattle, Wash.
March 4, 2012
No. 11 Stanford 6, No. 28 Washington 1
Doubles
2) Tan/Tsay (Stan) def. Nemcevic/Gregoire (UW), 8-1
3) Ahn/Li (Stan) def. Lukac/Shimizu (UW), 8-3
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles
1) (8) Nicole Gibbs (Stan) def. (14) Denise Dy (UW), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
2) (7) Mallory Burdette (Stan) def. Andjela Nemcevic (UW), 6-1, 6-4
3) (40) Stacey Tan (Stan) def. Samantha Smith (UW), 5-7, 6-2, 6-2
4) (53) Ellen Tsay (Stan) def. Capucine Gregoire (UW), 4-6, 6-4, (10-7)
5) Veronica Li (Stan) def. Julija Lukac (UW), 7-5, 6-2
6) Riko Shimizu (UW) def. Natalie Dillon (Stan), 7-6 (3), 6-1
Order of finish: 2, 6, 5, 3, 1, 4
