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NCAA Women's Tennis Championships: Stanford comes back again to stun No. 3 Duke

May 21, 2018

Once again this season, Stanford will be competing for an NCAA title. Stop us if you've heard that one before.

The Cardinal's women's tennis knocked off another top seed Monday at the NCAA Tennis Championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Here's how the match went down.

Related: 2018 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships bracket (NCAA.com)]

Stanford

No. 15 seed Stanford defeats No. 3 Duke, 4-2

The Cardinal finished off yet another up upset, this time against the Blue Devils, coming back after dropping the doubles point to clinch a berth in Tuesday's championship match versus No. 1 overall Vanderbilt at 10 a.m. PT.

Stanford has now won 18 of its last 21 matches when facing a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament in an impressive period dating back to 2010. And it marks the Cardinal's third straight upset win in this year's NCAA tourney alone. Before Monday, Stanford upended No. 2 seed North Carolina on Thursday (4-1) and No. 7 seed Georgia on Saturday (4-0).

Emma Higuchi got things started by tallying the first Stanford point in a 6-4, 6-0 victory on court 6. The sophomore now has 16 straight wins. Janice Shin followed up Higuchi's victory with one of her own: a 6-1, 6-1 decision that put the Cardinal up 2-1.

Melissa Lord continued Stanford's unanswered tear with a 6-2, 7-6 (0) victory on court 2. The junior has never lost an NCAA match during her time on The Farm. 

Michaela Gordon dropped her match on court 1 to make it 3-2 overall, but Stanford had the momentum on the two remaining courts, both in their third sets.

Caroline Lampl then collected career victory No. 75 with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory on court 3 to punch Stanford's ticket to the national title match. Action on court 4 then stopped, but the Cardinal had a strong lead there, too. Emily Arbuthnott was up 4-3 in the decisive third set.

The NCAA title match is familiar territory for head coach Lele Forood's squad: The Cardinal won it all in 2016 when the team was also seeded No. 15 in the NCAA field. Stanford will be seeking its 19th NCAA title in program history.