No. 1 Stanford
No 65 Mustangs Suffer First Loss of Year at Top-Ranked Stanford
1/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
PALO ALTO, Calif. – The No. 65 Cal Poly women's tennis team made the program's first appearance at the prestigious 60-team ITA Kick-Off Weekend event on Friday afternoon, but the Mustangs suffered a 4-0 loss against No. 1 Stanford during a four-team sectional hosted at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
With the loss, Cal Poly (1-1) will face No. 29 UNLV at 2 p.m. during a consolation-round Saturday match. Stanford (2-0) advanced in the competition and will face No. 39 Oklahoma on Saturday, also at 2 p.m. Friday's decision was Stanford's 166th-consecutive victory at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Senior Ashley Pane and junior Jocelyn Davis (above) opened Cal Poly's efforts with an 8-3 loss at No. 2 doubles against Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs before Mustang junior Amy Markhoff and sophomore Alexa Lee dropped an 8-2 decision versus Hilary Barte and Stacey Tan at No. 1. Stanford's Veronica Li and Carolyn McVeigh finalized the doubles point sweep with an 8-2 victory against Mustang freshmen Florence Lehane and Gabrielle Gatewood.
In singles action, freshman Jennifer Cornea fell at No. 4 against the 47th-ranked Tan, 6-1, 6-0, before the 80th-ranked Gibbs downed Pane, 6-0, 6-3. Stanford finalized the match victory at No. 5, where Li topped Davis, 6-1, 6-0. The three other singles matches were abandoned with the decision finalized.
"Today proved to be an awesome experience for a young team to play the defending national champions," 11th-year Cal Poly head coach Hugh Bream said. "I thought our players competed really well and that we learned a lot of lessons. Stanford is clearly the top-ranked team in the nation top to bottom, but the experience we gained will help us, beginning on Saturday."
