The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Stanford
No. 27 Women's Tennis falls to No. 14 Stanford, 5-2
02.06.2010 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 6, 2010
AUSTIN, Texas -- No. 27 Texas (1-3) picked up straight-set wins from Vanja Corovic and Sarah Lancaster, but No. 14 Stanford (5-0) picked up the doubles point and four singles wins on its way to a 5-2 win over the Longhorns Saturday at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
Texas fell behind early on in the doubles session but forced the Cardinal to earn the doubles point it would clinch one hour after the start of doubles. Stanford's second-ranked duo of Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette led off with an 8-3 win over UT's 27th-ranked duo of Amanda Craddock and Krista Damico at first doubles.
The match at third doubles featured a tight contest pitting Texas' Sarah Lancaster and Caroline Larsson against the Cardinal's Carolyn McVeigh and Veronica Li. Texas took a 4-3 lead only to see Stanford hold and break for a 5-4 lead.
Texas broke back to even the match at five, and Stanford broke Texas' serve once more for a 6-5 lead. Stanford held serve for a 7-5 lead before Texas' Larsson held to pull Texas within 7-6. But, Stanford held serve in the final game to take the match, 8-6 and clinch the doubles point.
Texas' Vanja Corovic and Aeriel Ellis trailed Stanford's Mallory Burdette and Stacey Tan by a 7-3 count at second doubles before rallying to victory. UT held serve and broke Stanford to pull within 7-5, held for 7-6 and broke Stanford again to even the match at seven. Ellis served out the next game to give UT an 8-7 lead, and after Stanford took the next game to force a tiebreaker, Texas claimed the ensuing tiebreaker, 7-5.
Mallory Burdette pushed the Stanford lead to 2-0 after posting a 6-2, 6-0 win over UT's Larsson at fourth singles. Texas' Corovic put the Longhorns on the board at third singles, where she dealt Stanford's Tan a 6-3, 6-1 defeat. Lindsay Burdette gave Stanford a 3-1 lead with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Damico at second singles, and the Cardinal clinched the match at fifth singles, where McVeigh defeated UT junior Maggie Mello by a 6-3, 6-4 count.
The contest at first singles matched UT's 22nd-ranked Ellis against Stanford's 18th-ranked Barte, who took the first set, 6-3. Ellis took the second set, 6-3, and given that the team outcome had been decided, a 10-point match tie-break was played in lieu of a final set. Barte took a 5-1 lead, but Ellis rallied to seven the tie-break at five. Trailing 7-6, Ellis tapped a cross-court backhand winner to even the tie-break, but Barte took the next three points to claim the match and give Stanford a 5-1 lead.
UT's Lancaster outlasted Stanford's Veronica Li in the first set at sixth singles, 7-5 and put Li away in the second, 6-2 to finish off the match.
Texas resumes play on Sunday, Feb. 21 when it hosts Pepperdine at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Patty Fendick-McCain
On the comeback win at No. 2 doubles: Vanja (Corovic) and Aeriel (Ellis) had great fighting spirit out there against an extremely talented team, but Vanja and Aeriel are a talented team, as well. They are really learning to come together as a team. They fought hard and executed well.
On the wins from Vanja Corovic and Sarah Lancaster, and Aeriel Ellis' loss at No. 1: Vanja has put the work in, and it is starting to pay off for her. It's good to see her coming back into her own form. Sarah was pretty mad about not getting the win against TCU last weekend, and seeing her tenacity and her ability to step up when she needed to was fantastic. Aeriel came up just a little short, but she played some great tennis. She is not used to the match tiebreak format, so she started behind the 8-ball, but she fought hard to get back in the match. She will learn a lot from the experience.
#14 Stanford 5, #27 Texas 2
Penick-Allison Tennis Center
Doubles - Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
1 #2 Barte/L. Burdette (Stanford) def. #27 Craddock/Damico (Texas) - 8-3
2 Corovic/Ellis (Texas) def. M. Burdette/Tan (Stanford) - 9-8 (5)
3 Li/McVeigh (Stanford) def. Lancaster/Larsson (Texas) - 8-6
Singles - Order of Finish: 4, 3, 2, 5, 1, 6
1 #18 Hilary Barte (Stanford) def. #22 Aeriel Ellis (Texas) - 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7)
2 Lindsay Burdette (Stanford) def. #27 Krista Damico (Texas) - 6-3, 6-4
3 #59 Vanja Corovic (Texas) def. Stacey Tan (Stanford) - 6-3, 6-1
4 #16 Mallory Burdette (Stanford) def. Caroline Larsson (Texas) - 6-2, 6-0
5 #78 Carolyn McVeigh (Stanford) def. Maggie Mello (Texas) - 6-3, 6-4
6 Sarah Lancaster (Texas) def. Veronica Li (Stanford) - 7-5, 6-2
