Tribe Battles No. 6 Stanford in Defeat

Klaudyna Kasztelaniec and Carmen Pop notched singles victories over nationally ranked foes.

03/04/08 10:30PM

Palo Alto, Calif. - The No. 26-ranked William and Mary women’s tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision at No. 6 Stanford on Tuesday afternoon, despite putting up a fight against the 2007 NCAA semifinalists. Junior Klaudyna Kasztelaniec and sophomore Carmen Pop highlighted the Tribe effort with wins over nationally ranked foes at the No. 4 and No. 6 singles positions. W&M fell to 8-7 overall on the year with all seven setbacks coming to teams ranked 22nd or higher in the latest ITA National Rankings, while the Cardinal improved to 8-3.

The Tribe squandered a chance to take the opening point in the match. W&M took the early advantage in doubles with a win at the No. 1 position. Senior Megan Moutlon-Levy and junior Katarina Zoricic, who are ranked No. 34 in the country, tallied their fourth win over a nationally ranked doubles pair this season, downing No. 30-ranked Hillary Barte and Lindsay Burdette, 8-3. The win bumped Moulton-Levy and Zoricic’s season ledger to 18-7 overall. The Cardinal pulled even with an 8-3 win at the No. 2 slot, setting up the deciding match at the No. 3 position.

At the third spot, the sophomore tandem of Lauren Sabacinski and Carmen Pop raced out to a 6-2 advantage and looked as though they would be able to sew up the doubles point for the College. The Cardinal pair of Celia Durkin and Carolyn McVeigh rallied, though, taking the final six games to claim an 8-6 victory and the opening point of the match for Stanford.

The Cardinal iced the match with straight set wins at the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 positions, but W&M battled into third sets at the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 slots against a Stanford line-up that featured seven nationally ranked singles players. At No. 1, Moulton-Levy saw her five-match winning streak come to a close. After claiming the opening set, 6-1, the No. 11 player nationally dropped the second and third sets, 6-2, 7-5, to No. 27-ranked Barte.

Kasztelaniec earned the sixth win of her W&M career over a nationally ranked player, knocking off the No. 43-ranked Whitney Deason at the No. 4 spot. After dropping the first set, 6-2, to Deason, Kasztelaniec rallied to force a decisive third set with a 6-4 victory in the second. She improved to 18-8 overall on the season with a 10-6 win in the third-set super tiebreaker.

Pop evened her season mark at 5-5 with the first win of her W&M career over a nationally ranked foe. The Nijmegen, Holland native dropped the opening set, 6-3, to No. 109-ranked Jennifer Yen at the No. 6 position. Pop came back to notch the victory with wins in the second set, 7-5, and the third-set super tiebreaker, 10-8.

W&M will continue its grueling streak of contests against the nation’s elite when it travels to No. 8 California on Wednesday, March 5. The match is slated for a 1:30 p.m. PT start. The Tribe will wrap up its trip to California with a 4 p.m. PT contest at No. 15 Fresno State on Friday, March 7.

#6 Stanford 5, #26 William and Mary 2
Singles
No. 1 – #27 Hilary Barte (Stanford) def. #11 Megan Moulton-Levy (W&M) – 1-6, 6-2, 7-5
No. 2 – #12 Jessica Nguyen (Stanford) def. #102 Katarina Zoricic (W&M) – 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 – #92 Celia Durkin (Stanford) def. #80 Ragini Acharya (W&M) – 6-4, 6-2
No. 4 – Klaudyna Kasztelaniec (W&M) def. #43 Whitney Deason (Stanford) – 6-2, 4-6, 10-6
No. 5 – #70 Carolyn McVeigh (Stanford) def. Lauren Sabacinski (W&M) – 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 – Carmen Pop (W&M) def. #109 Jennifer Yen (Stanford) – 3-6, 7-5, 10-8
Finishing Order: 3, 5, 2*, 6, 4, 1

Doubles
No. 1 – #34 Moulton-Levy/Zoricic (W&M) def. #30 Barte/Burdette (Stanford) – 8-3
No. 2 – #30 Deason/Nguyen (Stanford) def. Acharya/Kasztelaniec (W&M) – 8-3
No. 3 – Durkin/McVeigh (Stanford) def. Sabacinski/Pop (W&M) – 8-6
Finishing Order: 1, 2, 3*