It took a while for Melissa Lord to find her footing on The Farm, but by the time her freshman year came to a close it was evident the 19-year-old had settled into a groove.

Playing out of the No. 6 singles spot in the lineup, Lord rattled off victories on 10 of 11 matches to end her inaugural campaign with the Cardinal. That included triumphs against all six of her opponents in the postseason to help Stanford claim its 19th national championship.

“That was a feeling that I had never really felt before,” said Lord, who along with her teammates rushed to mob Taylor Davidson after the clinching point of the NCAA final. “It was nerve-wracking watching Taylor’s last point, but I had never felt that kind of excitement and just the rush of the moment. It was insane, it was awesome.”

Almost eight months later, it’s time to try to do it all over again.

Stanford opens dual match play next week against Saint Mary’s, and to prepare the Cardinal dispatched its 10 players to a pair of different tournaments. Lord was sent to the Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas — the gamble paid off.

The 5-foot-7 sophomore ripped off five victories during a three-day stretch against impressive competition to claim her first NCAA singles title.

“It’s a career-changing performance for her at this point,” said Stanford coach Lele Forood, in her 17th season at the helm. “What was really evident in her play this weekend was she brought some really big power tennis to her matches. And she disrupted people from their game with the kind of pace that she brings on an average shot, both on the forehand and the backhand.”

Lord, who grew up in Connecticut, first picked up a racket at the age of 5. Next to older sister Dayna and younger brother Matthew, the trio learned the intricacies of the sport under the tutelage of Phil Gordon, a tennis pro with over 40 years of experience.

“He’s trained us since we were little,” Lord said. “I’ve had him for basically my whole life.”

Lord completed her high school career undefeated and was ranked No. 7 nationally and tabbed a Blue Chip recruit by www.tennisrecruiting.net.

Meanwhile, Dayna plays No. 1 singles at Brown as a senior, while Matthew is a high school senior who will play men’s tennis in the fall at Virginia.

“There is a lot of good tennis in her family, so a lot of pedigree there,” Forood said.

While her siblings chose to remain closer to home, Lord flew the coop.

“Location wasn’t that big of a factor for me, because Stanford is just awesome,” said Lord, who stayed for summer classes before flying back home for a month.

“Beginning of freshman year was pretty hectic, just balancing classes and the academics with your athletics and lifts and conditioning, and just finding a stable schedule,” Lord added. “But after fall quarter of freshman year, everything seemed to settle down a little bit. Of course, it gets really busy at some points, but everyone else is doing it, so it’s doable.”

At the end of her freshman year and throughout the summer, Lord focused on improving the consistency of her forehand to extend rallies, while also aiming to boost her first-serve percentage.

“My serve gave me a lot of crucial points during the tournament,” Lord said.

In Las Vegas, she not only dispatched No. 8-ranked Luisa Stefani of Pepperdine with ease 6-0, 6-2 in the round of 16, but also pulled off another upset in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 over No. 4-ranked Ena Shibahara of UCLA in the singles final.

How can she explain such stunning results?

“I think partly it was because there wasn’t much pressure, there wasn’t anything on the line,” said Lord, who improved to 9-1 this season after reaching the quarterfinals of ITA Northwest Regional Championships in the fall. “I mean, I was representing Stanford, but it wasn’t like a dual match where if I lose, then it affects the entire team. So in that sense, kind of going there knowing that whatever happens, happens, and it will only affect me.”

Beginning with the Jan. 27 dual match against the Gaels at Taube Family Tennis Center, it’s all about the team.

Stanford lost Carol Zhao to the pro ranks and Krista Hardebeck to graduation, leaving voids at the No. 1 and 4 singles spots.

For a brief moment, it appeared as if Atherton prodigy CiCi Bellis would enroll at Stanford after verbally committing during the Bank of the West Classic, but she instead opted to join the WTA Tour after the U.S. Open. (Bellis was forced to sit out the Australian Open with a hamstring strain.)

But the Cardinal does receive a boost from freshmen Emily Arbuthnott and Emma Higuchi, while the lineup will be anchored by Davidson and fellow senior Caroline Doyle, plus sophomore Caroline Lampl.

Then, there is the matter of doubles pairings and figuring out where to slot Lord after her breakout performance.

“We haven’t really quite digested it all, yet,” Forood said. “Clearly, we can safely say that she won’t be in the sixth position this year. We’re kind of sorting it all out. This is what January is for, kind of figuring out what we have and what order we should have everybody playing, both singles and doubles. And I think there is going to be possibly some more movement this year than there typically is for a lineup of ours.”

It doesn’t help that the weather has interfered with recent training sessions.

“It’s been raining so much,” said Lord, with a brief laugh. “We don’t have that many indoor courts here and practices have been a little bit shorter, but they’re still as intense, because we have a limited amount of time. But the rain is pretty unfortunate, so hopefully we won’t have much coming up.”

Rain or no rain, Lord is set to make a big splash.

“It took her more or less to the end of the freshman year to really kind of show us what she was capable of,” Forood said. “And now she’s showing us a very different level. It’s up to her what her limits are at this point.”