The Cardinal coasted in doubles, securing the point following a 6-1 victory from Melissa Lord and Janice Shin at the No. 3 spot.

Riding a 15-match winning streak as one of the hottest teams in the country, Stanford also improved to 39-5 during the month of May since 2010, a stretch that has produced three NCAA championships.

The Cardinal (19-3), making its 37th consecutive postseason appearance, has never lost in the first round. Pouncing on the Red Storm early in doubles, Stanford carried the momentum with strong play on the back courts in singles.

The 15th-seeded Stanford women's tennis team took a first step toward a possible NCAA championship Friday, beating St. John's, 4-0, in the first round of the tournament at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.

Stanford is 147-19 all-time in the NCAA tournament. 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.

Stanford will face No. 17 Michigan, a 4-0 winner over Hawai'i, on Saturday at 4 p.m. A berth in next weekend's NCAA round of 16 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is on the line.

Stanford increased its lead to 2-0 following Emma Higuchi's 6-0, 6-0 rout of Kajsa Stegrell at the No. 6 spot. Higuchi has won 14 consecutive matches, a streak dating to Feb. 24.

Stanford's 14 goals were its most at the championship since it opened the 2014 edition with an 18-2 win over Indiana.

Madison Berggren, Aria Fischer, Makenzie Fischer, Kat Klass, Jordan Raney and Mackenzie Wiley spread the offensive wealth among themselves for the Cardinal while Bella Baldridge and Shannon Cleary each added scores.

Stanford (19-3) advances to Saturday's semifinal round at 5 p.m. against No. 3 Cal (20-5), which beat No. 9 Michigan 13-6 in the final game of the day.

Six players scored twice and No. 2 Stanford rolled to a 14-8 win over No. 8 UC Irvine in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championship on Friday in Los Angeles.

Stanford and Arizona will meet for the series finale on Saturday at noon, which will be televised on Pac-12 Networks. The Cardinal will recognize its three seniors (Pettit, Lauren Wegner, Victoria Molina) in a pregame ceremony.

Stanford sophomore Nikki Bauer (2-7) took the loss in the circle. She finished with four strikeouts, while giving up four runs on nine hits and issued four walks in a complete game.

Stanford was held to just three hits on the evening. Redshirt junior Whitney Burks and sophomore Kristina Inouye both singled in the first inning, while senior Arden Pettit had a basehit to lead off the fourth. For the game, the Cardinal stranded six baserunners.

No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Oregon State will play Game 2 of the three-game series on Saturday at 2 p.m. The contest will air on Pac-12 Networks.

Matthiessen's home run was his sixth in as many games. He earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors on Monday. Oregon State restored its four-run lead in the bottom of the eighth, plating two unearned runs due to a fielding error.

Andrew Daschbach's walk in the second inning was Stanford's only base runner in the first four frames before Stowers doubled in the fifth.

All of Beck's earned runs came in the first two innings, but he recovered to retire the next 10 batters and keep Stanford in the game.

Starting pitcher Tristan Beck (7-3) took the loss, surrendering four earned runs and striking out five for the Cardinal (38-7 overall, 17-5 Pac-12).

"They jumped on us early, but I thought Tristan got stronger as the night went on and really kept us in it," said Cardinal coach David Esquer. "Matthiessen came through with another big swing, but they were just better than we were tonight. It's never easy to get anything going when facing a pitcher throwing that well."

Will Matthiessen homered and Tristan Beck battled into the eighth inning but No. 2 Stanford dropped the series opener at No. 3 Oregon State, 6-2, on Friday night at Goss Stadium.

Corinna Toledo (6:29) and Natalie Seidemann (3:35) pulled UC Irvine within three, but Stanford responded with another extended run, scoring five straight to go up by eight early in the third, 11-3.

Early in the second, Fischer took the ball down the right side and when a UCI defender slid over, she dropped it to the middle and a wide open Berggren to push Stanford's lead to five, 6-1 (6:29).

Makenzie Fischer ended another Irvine 6-on-5 with a steal and Raney scored again with a quick shot off a feed from Klass (2:46). Cleary drew another kickout with the Cardinal coming down the pool on offense and Fischer went far post in the 6-on-5 to keep Stanford rolling (2:01).

On the Cardinal's ensuing possession after Irvine tied it up, Klass shed her defender at five meters, spun and got the skip to find the back of the cage (5:01). Stanford shut down the Anteater's power play midway through the period, holding UCI without a shot, and Berggren hit Raney who scored top corner to make it 3-1 (3:41).

Stanford set the tone from the opening sprint. The Cardinal opened with a Berggren 6-on-5 goal (7:18) after Katie Dudley drew an exclusion on UCI's Isabel Rack. The Anteaters Cara Borkovec found Keana Eldridge to equalize minutes later (5:32) and then Stanford was off to the races, scoring five unanswered goals to seize control.

Cardinal corner: Women's tennis, water polo win in NCAA