Tennis opens doors
Sport was perfect gateway for Lord’s children to get education
ents. All the hitting partners we’ve had through the years. All the people who believe in our abilities.”
Melissa and her siblings always kept in mind their mom’s goals for them.
“I think growing up, my mom gave us the right mindset to achieve our goals,” Melissa said. “She laid a solid foundation for all three of us, in terms of education and athletics. She instilled in our minds that you should want a great college education and you should go where you want to go in life.”
When Melissa arrived at Stanford, the Cardinal had already won 17 NCAA titles; her freshman year, at No. 6 singles, she would help them get their 18th, winning 10 of her last 11 matches and going 6-0 in the NCAA Tournament.
Her sophomore year, she moved to No. 2 and went 4-0 in the NCAA Tournament and was named to the all-tournament team, although Stanford lost in the NCAA championship, 4-1, to Florida. Melissa won the only match that day, 6-4, 7-5 over Florida’s Josie Kuhlman.
But the next two years, Stanford would win two more titles. Lord clinched the 2018 national title at No. 2 singles as a junior with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 win over Vanderbilt’s Fernanda Contreras and the 15th-seeded Cardinal beat the top-seeded Commodores, 4-3.
“That was a unique year,” Melissa said. “We were ranked relatively low compared to where we usually are. We had a lot to prove to others.
“That was one of the peaks right there.”
This season, she said, for her, was more relaxed, although there was a certain amount of pressure to repeat as national champions.
“As seniors, we already had two rings – we were trying to get a ring for the freshmen and get another for the sophomores but if we lost, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.”
They didn’t. In her fourth NCAA championship, Lord won a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Georgia’s Marta Gonzalez (after losing to Gonzalez earlier in the season), finishing 20-1 in NCAA Tournament play, and Stanford avenged its only loss of the season with a 4-0 win over Georgia. Lord finished with 101 career wins.
And that’s it for her. She will graduate with a degree in public policy and will be starting a job at TripActions, a San Francisco corporate travel management startup.
“I think tennis will always be a part of my life,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed making connections with people through the sport. But professionally, I’ve sort of ruled that out.
“A lot of the reason I enjoy tennis is the team aspect in college. For now I’m happy with my decision to go into the work force.”
The entire family will be in Palo Alto Sunday. And Iona won’t be far from their thoughts.
“She would have been very proud of us,” Dayna said. “For her not to be here, it’s very sad … but she’s always watching us, she’s like our angel. Whenever I’m going through a rough time, I think, ‘Both of my parents are immigrants, they’ve sacrificed so much for us, so the least we can do is try to find ways to be our best selves.’
“She would have been really happy.
She would be excited to see us grow into the women we are.”