Stanford wins NCAA tennis title

Melissa Lord won the clinching match as Stanford won its 19th NCAA women’s tennis title with a 4-3 victory over top-seed Vanderbilt in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Tuesday.

The No. 15-seed Cardinal became the lowest-seeded team to win the national championship. Stanford won it all as the No. 12 seed in 2013.

Stanford (24-3) ended the season with a 20-game winning streak. During the tournament, the Cardinal defeated the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 7 seeded teams on the way to its 20th overall national title.

Vanderbilt earned the first point of the match, a doubles win, before Emma Higuchi earned her 17th straight match win at No. 6 singles. Caroline Lampl then delivered a straightset win at No. 3 singles.

Janice Shin made it 3-2 with a straight-set singles win, after Vanderbilt tied the match at 3-3, Lord earned a winner-take-all 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory. She improved to 15-0 over her career in NCAA team matches.

Stanford has won 117 NCAA titles, one more than UCLA for the all-time lead.

Golf

CARDINAL ELIMINATED IN MATCH PLAY >> Shannon Aubert shelved two wins as fifth-seeded Stanford defeated Northwestern 3-2 before falling 4-1 to Arizona in match play at the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Aubert leaves Stanford as the nation’s only player to compete in four straight match-play portions of the NCAA Championships.