Tennis teams capture titles at USTA/ITA Regionals

The Stanford tennis program will need to make room on the trophy shelf after its players earned three titles and one second-place finish at the four-day USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships this week.

Junior Taylor Davidson (above) helped claim two titles for Stanford at the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships, capturing the singles title and winning the doubles tournament with fellow junior Caroline Doyle. (NICK SALAZAR/The Stanford Daily)

Junior Taylor Davidson helped claim two titles for the Cardinal, winning both the singles and doubles tournaments at the women’s championships, while sophomore David Wilczynski won the singles title at the men’s USTA/ITA Regional tournament. The Cardinal also earned hardware in men’s doubles, as seniors Nolan Paige and Maciek Romanowicz notched a second-place finish.

Stanford hosted the women’s USTA/ITA Regional championships for the ninth consecutive year on Oct. 23-27. The tournament consistently has been a stomping ground for the Cardinal women to uphold their record as historically the most successful women’s collegiate program in the country. Davidson is the sixth consecutive Cardinal to win the USTA/ITA Regional championships, which marks her first career singles title.

Davidson, the No. 15-ranked women’s player in the nation, beat Fresno State’s Maier Sherif Ahmed 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 in the championship match. This was the third year Davidson notched outstanding results in the regional championships: Last year she reached the finals before losing to teammate Carol Zhao and in 2013 she won the doubles title with Ellen Tsay ’15.

Junior Caroline Doyle reached the semifinals in singles and teamed up with Davidson to claim the doubles title in a 7-5, 6-3 win over Cal’s Klara Fabikova and Olivia Hauger. Freshmen Melissa Lord, Caroline Lampl and Kimberly Yee each won two matches before falling in the round of 32. Seniors Krista Hardebeck and Lindsey Kostas and freshman Naomie Rosenberg each won one match. In doubles, Hardebeck and Lampl reached the semifinals before losing 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (7). Zhao, a senior, is currently ranked No. 1 but did not compete this week.

Sophomore David Wilczynski (above) won the singles title at the USTA/ITA Regional Tournament, defeating Washington’s Mitch Stewart 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the championship match. (HECTOR GARCIA-MOLINA/stanfordphoto.com)

Wilczynski’s 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over Washington’s Mitch Stewart for the singles title was part of an overall strong Cardinal performance from the men’s side at the championships at the University of Washington in Seattle on Oct. 22-26. Page and Romanowicz reached the doubles finals before falling 6-2, 6-2 to another all-senior team, University of San Francisco’s Vasco Valverde and Nils Skajaa.

Page reached the quarterfinals in singles before dropping a closely contested 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 battle to Washington’s Gal Hakak. Romanowicz, sophomore David Hsu and freshman Michael Genender all reached the round of 16, while freshman Sameer Kumar won two matches before falling in the round of 32. Senior Anthony Tsodikov and junior Brandon Sutter each won one match.

The Cardinal men’s team will conclude its fall season of individual play on Nov. 12-15, when players will compete at the Jack Kramer Club Invitational in Rolling Hills Estates, California and the USTA/ITA Indoor Championships in Flushing Meadow, New York. On the women’s side, Doyle’s and Davidson’s outstanding performances this week earned them berths at the national indoor championships. The women’s team will also travel to a competition in Kohala Coast, Hawaii on Nov. 22.

Contact Alexa Corse at corsea ‘at’ stanford.edu.