No. 22 Stanford Cardinal (12-3, 6-0 Pac-12)
at
No. 37 Washington State Cougars (20-3, 5-2 Pac-12)
Friday, April 13 • 1:30 p.m. PT
Pullman, Wash.
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STANFORD, Calif. - No. 22 Stanford can take another step toward securing its third straight Pac-12 title with a successful road trip this weekend.
Winners of eight straight since its last loss back on Feb. 24, Stanford (12-3, 6-0 Pac-12) visits No. 37 Washington State (20-3, 5-2 Pac-12) on Friday and Washington (13-9, 3-4 Pac-12) on Saturday. After this weekend, the Cardinal hosts California on April 20 in the final match of the regular season.
It's increasingly possible that both contests this weekend will be played indoors, with several days of rainy weather on tap in the Pacific Northwest.
Only the rain has been able to slow Stanford over the last two months, with two cancellations interrupting the dominating eight-match winning streak. Finally healthy and hitting its stride, the Cardinal is one of the country's hottest teams, which has become an annual occurrence seemingly every April.
Stanford's most recent win on Sunday over No. 26 Oregon was its fourth this season over a ranked opponent. The Cardinal needs to continue piling up victories of any kind if it wants to be considered as a host site for the first two rounds of the NCAA Championships. Since moving to the current 64-team field in 1999, Stanford has never missed out on hosting the first two matches of the postseason.
It's been somewhat of a streaky campaign for Stanford, which opened the season ranked No. 1 before dropping all the way to No. 46 at the start of conference play. But the Cardinal has jumped 24 spots in the last month, now boasting its regular lineup that will again look to make a deep run into the postseason. Stanford's only three losses have come against teams currently ranked No. 10 or higher: Vanderbilt, Texas, Florida.
Riding a nine-match winning streak, Emily Arbuthnott (20-6 overall, 10-1 duals) is Stanford's winningest player despite competing at the No. 4 spot in an extremely balanced lineup. Right behind Arbuthnott are three players with 19 victories: Michaela Gordon (19-6 overall, 10-5 duals), Emma Higuchi (19-6 overall, 11-3 duals) and Janice Shin (19-4 overall, 10-3 duals).
In doubles play, Stanford boasts two nationally-ranked duos, led by the third-ranked pairing of Arbuthnott and Gordon (14-3 overall, 6-2 duals). Caroline Lampl and Kimberly Yee (10-2 overall, 9-1 duals) have won five in a row and check in at No. 54 this week.