Stanford women’s tennis claims back-to-back wins to start conference play

Stanford women’s tennis (9-2, 2-0 ACC) made a memorable entrance into the Atlantic Coast Conference this weekend, facing off against Syracuse (8-5, 1-5 ACC) on Friday and Boston College (5-11, 1-5 ACC) on Saturday at the newly completed Tauble Pavilion at Arrillaga Tennis Center. After a successful February against non-conference opponents Santa Clara (6-7, 0-0 West Coast), Saint Mary’s (2-6, 0-0 West Coast) and UCSB (4-7, 1-0 Big West), the Cardinal continued their winning streak with victories over both teams, putting their conference record at 2-0. 

Against Syracuse, third doubles pairing graduate student Chidimma Okpara and freshman Morgan Shaffer were the first to finish their match, with a winning score of 6-1. Top doubles pairing freshman Valerie Glozman and senior Connie Ma, who were named ACC Doubles Team of the Week for matches played Feb. 2-9, earned the doubles point with their 6-4 victory. 

With the doubles point secured, the Cardinal needed three singles wins, worth one point each, to win the overall match with a majority of four out of seven total possible points. They did so with three decisive straight-sets victories: Glozman with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles, Ma with a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1, and senior Valencia Xu’s clinching win of 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3. 

Coming off of their 4-1 victory against Syracuse, the team returned to Taube Pavilion to compete against Boston College the following afternoon. Once again, the Cardinal secured the doubles point; this time, it was a 6-0 sweep from Glozman and Ma, followed by a 6-4 victory from the second doubles team, junior Caroline Driscoll and Xu. 

Just as they had the day before, Ma, Glozman, and Xu moved through their singles matches swiftly in straight sets with Glozman, the highest ranked underclassman nationally, finishing first at 6-2, 6-0 and Ma finishing second at 6-2, 6-1. Cheers erupted with Xu’s 6-1, 6-1 victory, securing the 5-2 Cardinal win. 

In their next ACC faceoff, the team will play another home match against SMU (8-6, 2-2 ACC) this Friday. Matches are set to start at 1 p.m.

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