With most of the top 10 teams in Division I have the weekend off before competing in the ITA National Team Indoor tournament, this weekend's schedule is lighter on games involving top teams. The primary exception is top-ranked Stanford, who plays No. 17 Texas on Friday and No. 22 Rice.
Stanford has been something of an outlier this season. The defending national champions were also the only top-10 team to not participate in last weekend's ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Instead, the Cardinal took down UC Davis on Saturday to collect the program's 900th win.
Things get tougher for Stanford this weekend. starting with the Longhorns. Texas earned a spot in the ITA National Tean Indoor tournament by beating Auburn and Rice by 4-1 scores. Breaunna Addison, who is ranked 22nd in the nation in singles, upset Auburn's 12th-ranked Pleun Burgmans and then beat Rice's Natalie Beazant.
Rice was involved in a pair of close contests last weekend, rallying to beat Florida State 4-3 but losing 4-1 to Texas on Saturday. Against the Longhorns, the Owls lost a pair of tiebreakers in singles by 10-8 scores and weren't able to overcome that.
Lob shots
Florida, Georgia, California and Duke each have one match this weekend ... Georgiaâs Lauren Herring has been named SEC Player of the Week after going 2-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles during ITA Kick-Off Weekend ... Florida senior Alexandra Cercone is one singles win away from 100 in her career.
