Stanford’s Irvin Gets Boost and Reaches Quarterfinals
Marissa Irvin played collegiate tennis for six months before facing her first significant challenge. The Stanford freshman from Harvard-Westlake High won her first 23 dual matches and entered Pacific 10 Conference play brimming with confidence.
Nothing comes as easy as all that, however, as Irvin discovered. The No. 3-ranked collegiate player dropped three conference matches the past two weeks and entered Thursday’s Pac-10 individual championships at the Ojai Valley tournament in need of a boost.
Irvin got one by defeating Francesca La’o of California, 6-2, 6-3, and Patrycja Gajdzik of Washington State, 6-3, 6-4, to advance to today’s quarterfinals against Allison Bradshaw of Arizona State.
“I knew I needed to refocus and get back to making good shots,” Irvin said.
Less fortunate were the four men’s singles players from UCLA, all of whom were eliminated.
Most startling was the first-round upset of Jean-Noel Grinda by Michel Stopa of Arizona, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6, (7-2). Zach Fleishman also lost in the first round, to Greg Hill of USC, and Bruins Jason Cook and Jong-Min Lee were eliminated in the second round.
