By Sylvie Ashford on April 23, 2018

No. 20 Stanford women’s tennis (15-3, 9-0 Pac-12) closed out their regular season with a 4-0 home sweep against No. 42 rival California (11-8, 6-4) on Friday, earning them the Pac-12 conference regular season title and positioning the Cardinal as the No. 1 seed for next week’s Pac-12 championships.

After securing their ninth home win, ninth intraconference win and 11th consecutive victory, the Cardinal is well-poised to take home both the regular and championship Pac-12 titles for the first time in the program’s history, although they claimed the post-season title last year.

Claiming two of the three doubles pairings, the Cardinal took the first point of the day. Although the nationally ranked No. 3 team of sophomore Emily Arbuthnott and freshman Michaela Gordon’s unleashed a powerful 6-0 win in the first position, it was junior Melissa Lord and freshman Janice Shin’s third position 7-5 victory that clinched the category win.

Gordon, the No. 22 ranked singles player in the country, continued to anchor her team in singles, seizing a 6-2, 6-4 triumph in the first position and her 20th match decision of the season.

Although Lord, Shin, and sophomore Caroline Lampl each had one game win, their matches were abandoned; it was Arbuthnott’s 22nd season win, along with increasingly consistent sophomore Emma Higuchi’s 6-2, 6-1 victory – and 21st season win – that earned Stanford the sweep.

Holding the top spot in the conference, the Cardinal will skip to the quarterfinals to compete in the Pac-12 championships on Thursday and Friday in Ojai, California. The match details are set for release Monday, while the competition will be streamed on Pac-12 networks.

Contact Sylvie Ashford at sylviash ‘at’ stanford.edu.