In a day of stunning upsets at the Riviera/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships, the Stanford women’s tennis team was the primary victim, suffering three defeats in the main draw and two in the consolation brackets. At the end of the day, the Cardinal did not win a single match.

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Junior Jessica Nguyen, No. 16 in preseason rankings, suffered an early loss at the ITA All-American Championships to No. 119 Aurelija Misviciute of Arkansas. It was one of many disappointments for the Cardinal on the tournament’s first day, as Stanford failed to win a match. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/7933
Stanford Daily File Photo

Junior Jessica Nguyen, No. 16 in preseason rankings, suffered an early loss at the ITA All-American Championships to No. 119 Aurelija Misviciute of Arkansas. It was one of many disappointments for the Cardinal on the tournament’s first day, as Stanford failed to win a match.

The first round of the main draw at Pacific Palisades, Calif. saw upsets of five of the top-eight seeded players in the tourney, including first seed Megan Falcon of LSU, who lost to Vanderbilt’s Amanda Taylor, 6-2, 6-3.

Even more remarkable, perhaps, was the fact that six of the eight qualifying players had first round victories.

One of them came at the expense of Stanford; senior Celia Durkin lost to Maya Johansson of Georgia Tech. Johansson, who made it to the main draw out of the qualifying bracket, led 6-4, 5-4 until Durkin, the eighth seed, retired from the match.

Johansson, ranked 56th in doubles, is unranked in the preseason singles polls.

A similar fate befell fellow Cardinal teammate Jessica Nguyen, who dropped a 6-4, 6-3 decision to Arkansas’s Aurelija Miseviciute in a considerable upset, according to their preseason ITA rankings — Nguyen was 16th, while Miseviciute ranked 119th.

Completing the sweep of Stanford was sixth seeded Zuzana Zemenova’s defeat of sophomore Lindsay Burdette. Burdette fell 6-4, 6-4 to the Baylor star, leaving the Cardinal winless for the day.

Zemenova, Fresno State’s Melanie Gloria and California’s Suzi Babos were the only seeded players to advance to the second round.

With the trifecta of Cardinal losses, Stanford failed to advance any players to the second round for the first time this decade.

Last year, Theresa Logar ‘07 was the only Cardinal woman to escape the opening round of singles play. Logar then dropped a close decision to Megan Moulton-Levy of William and Mary. The last Stanford player to reach the All-American finals was Erin Burdette ‘05, older sister to Lindsay.

In the consolation bracket, senior Whitney Deason dropped a 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 decision to Nebraska’s Imke Reimers, while the team of Burdette and Nguyen fell 9-8(7) to Noelle Hickey and Christy Striplin of Georgia Tech.

Durkin, Nguyen and Burdette begin play today in the consolation bracket of the main draw, where they hope to regain their form. With three remaining tournaments in their fall season, the Stanford women have yet to answer many lingering questions about their depth.

After concluding play at the All-American, the Cardinal will head back to the Farm to host the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, Oct 19-22.