For years, the Stanford women have been a fixture at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Indoor Championships, which start today at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Junior Jessica Nguyen will be the Cardinal’s lone representative at one of the toughest tournaments of the season. A week ago, Nguyen earned a bid at the Indoors by capturing the team’s first singles title of the season at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships.

Nguyen will face a challenging draw consisting of the top 32 players in the nation, most of them qualifying through their respective Regional Championships or the All-American Championships a few weeks before.

“Every match is a big match,” Nguyen said. “You never have a warm-up match because there’s no such thing. Everyone is very solid and ready to play.”

Last year, the Card sent three players to the Indoors — Nguyen, senior Celia Durkin and Theresa Logar ‘07. Nguyen was invited to the Indoors after reaching the finals in both the singles and doubles of last year’s Regional, while Durkin and Logar received at-large bids.

Of the three, Nguyen advanced the furthest main draw, making it to the second round.

Durkin, who won last year’s consolation bracket, was not selected in this year’s event due to a less impressive fall season.

“It’s definitely weird being the only person playing,” Nguyen said. “I don’t think that’s happened in the last 10 years, but I’m just excited to be able to represent Stanford. I couldn’t imagine what the Indoors would be like without a Stanford player in it — it just wouldn’t be the same.”

In addition to the pressure of being the only Cardinal woman, Nguyen must adjust to playing indoors.

“Indoors is a huge difference,” Nguyen said. “We rarely practice indoors, and all the girls in the East Coast and Midwest are constantly playing indoors now. The air is dead, so the ball is going to be really fast.”

Fortunately, Nguyen is ready to take on the challenge almost single-handedly.

“I’m an aggressive player, and it’s important to be quick indoors,” Nguyen said. “I think that really plays into my game well.... I’ll be ready for game-time on Thursday.”

In the first round, Nguyen will face Johanna Dahlback of Armstrong Pacific. Dahlback, who is the ITA Small College Champion, is unranked in the preseason polls.

However, if Nguyen advances, she will potentially face the second-seeded player, Susie Babos of California. Babos was the ITA Women’s All-American Champion and is a former NCAA singles champion, having won the title in 2006.

Nonetheless, Nguyen is ready for any challenges that come her way.

As the Northwest Regional champ, Nguyen played 10 matches in four days without feeling any pain in her previously bothersome left foot.

“The way it looks now, it looks great health-wise,” Nguyen said. “I’ll just keep taking good care of it.”

No matter how the weekend turns out, Nguyen understands that this is but a small part of the grand scheme of Stanford’s season and the team’s quest to win its fourth national title in five years.

“I’m just looking forward to being able to play more matches,” Nguyen said. “That’s the only way we really improve, playing in tournaments and playing good people. And hopefully it’ll be good preparation for when the season comes.”

While Nguyen participates in the Indoors, the Cardinal will send senior Whitney Deason and freshman Jennifer Yen to the Arizona State Invitational in Tempe, Ariz.

The two tournaments mark the final tune-up of the fall season. Stanford will be off for two months before returning to action in January at the Freeman Invitational, where the team hopes to finally shrug off its early season rust.