STANFORD, Calif. - No. 15 Stanford rode the momentum of a hard-fought doubles point to a closer-than-it-looked 4-0 victory over No. 17 Michigan on Saturday evening in the second round of the NCAA Championships.

Riding a 16-match winning streak as one of the hottest teams in the country, Stanford (20-3) took a 1-0 lead and stormed its way through singles, where it won four of the six first sets.

Predictably, the Cardinal has put its early-season struggles in the rear view, finding its groove at exactly the right time. Stanford improved to 40-5 during the month of May since 2010, a stretch that has also produced three NCAA championships (2010, 2013, 2016).

Saturday's matchup figured to be perhaps the most competitive second-round matchup, with Big Ten champion and NCAA regular Michigan (18-10) among the best No. 2 seeds in the bracket. Instead, Stanford eliminated the Wolverines for the third consecutive season.

The tone was set in doubles, with all three courts at one time deadlocked at 4-4. The scales tipped to Michigan early, as Kate Fahey and Brienne Minor knocked off No. 3-ranked Emily Arbuthnott and Michaela Gordon 6-4, representing only the pair's fifth loss of the season.

Caroline Lampl and Kimberly Yee evened it up with a 6-4 win at the No. 2 spot, shifting all the pressure to court three.

Melissa Lord and Janice Shin , who entered the match 10-1 overall, moved in front 6-5 before Michigan's Chiara Lommer and Lera Patiuk won the next game to force a tiebreaker. Lommer and Patiuk raced out to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker, only to have Lord and Shin rattle off seven consecutive points and allow Stanford to exhale with a 1-0 advantage after doubles.

Stanford increased its lead to 2-0 following Emma Higuchi 's 6-1, 6-0 triumph over Bella Lorenzini at the No. 6 spot. Higuchi has won a team-best 14 consecutive matches, with her last loss coming on Feb. 24.

Lord followed with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Minor at the No. 2 position, improving to 11-0 all-time in NCAA team matches.

Shin provided her fourth clincher of the season, collecting her first career NCAA victory when she defeated Mira Ruder-Hook 6-4, 6-1 on court five.

The Cardinal closed out the year 11-1 at Taube Family Tennis Stadium, where it has won 48 of its 51 contests dating back to 2015. Stanford has served as a host site for the first and second rounds every year since the NCAA shifted to its current 64-team field in 1999.

Stanford, which improved to 149-19 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, must be considered a title contender regardless of seed. The Cardinal has won 16 of its last 19 NCAA Tournament matches when seeded lower than its opponent, and that streak will be put to the test against No. 2 North Carolina on Thursday, May 17, in the round of 16 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

In 2016, Stanford became the lowest-seeded team to win an NCAA title at No. 15, defeating Oklahoma State in a 4-3 thriller. Five years ago, Stanford won it all as a No. 12 seed – at the time the lowest-seeded team to accomplish the feat. In 2010, the Cardinal took home the crown as a No. 8 seed.

DOUBLES

1) Fahey/Minor (MICH) d. No. 3 Arbuthnott/Gordon (STAN) 6-4

2) No. 78 Lampl/ Kimberly Yee (STAN) d. Jones/Ruder-Hook (MICH) 6-4

3) Lord/Shin (STAN) d. Lommer/Lera Patiuk (MICH) 7-6 (5)

Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3