{"id":240283,"date":"2010-01-28T03:09:11","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T08:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stanforddaily.com\/cgi-bin\/?p=1037657"},"modified":"2010-01-28T03:09:11","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T08:09:11","slug":"embracing-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/240283","title":{"rendered":"Embracing Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around this time most years, the women of the Stanford tennis program are headed off to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships – but not this year. This year, the women are spending their time on a road trip to Texas, facing opponents they wouldn\u2019t normally play.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Seewald\/The Stanford Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Team Indoors has proven to be an up-and-down event for the women. In 2006, they won the tournament by topping the same Texas team they face this weekend, 4-0 . They made the semifinals in 2008, but lost last year in the first round to then-No. 14 Notre Dame. The team decided that this year, the time could be used in a more effective way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re skipping Indoors because of hassle,\u201d said senior captain Lindsay Burdette. \u201cWe wanted to use the time to create more team unity; plus, our conference is plenty good. We didn\u2019t feel the need to go to Wisconsin when we end up playing the Pac-10 anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another consideration is the amount of matches played during the season. The NCAA only allows each player to participate in a certain amount of league matches, while the ITA Team Indoors requires that in addition to those main draw matches, each team plays two qualifying matches. By avoiding spending those matches on Indoors, Stanford is able to use them where they want. This year, those extra matches saved are being used to help ease the team into the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if things are better this year [than last year], it\u2019s still a great move for us to have a couple matches – big trips like Texas – to kind of get everybody back into the swing of super positive team unity and just get confident again that we\u2019re the best,\u201d Burdette said. \u201cYou have to believe it first before you can go out there and show it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indoors can be a little overwhelming for new players. With its high level of competition early in the team\u2019s season, a poor performance can create a bad mindset for the remainder of the year. Last year\u2019s early exit created a poor mindset that hurt the team, but a strong start could have boosted them throughout the rest of the season. Junior Hilary Barte remembers too well her freshman experience at Indoors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndoors is kind of a madhouse,\u201d Barte said. \u201cI know freshman year there was the first time I\u2019d seen the national competition and just kind of what the other top teams look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a few more games to ease into the season can only help, many of the upperclassmen say that this year\u2019s team vibe is already amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is just that extra spark with the team this year,\u201d Burdette said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to articulate or put your finger on, but it is there. We\u2019re not cocky, but we think we have everything it takes to be number one and take the national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around this time most years, the women of the Stanford tennis program are headed off to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships – but not this year. This year, the women are spending their time on a road trip to Texas, facing opponents they wouldn\u2019t normally play. Chris Seewald\/The Stanford Daily Team Indoors has proven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}