Although they played at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions in singles this season, Theresa Logar and Anne Yelsey agree they wouldn’t make ideal doubles partners.
“She’s more of a slicey player at net, and I’m more of a banger from the baseline,” Logar says, flashing a big, sly smile. “So we wouldn’t mesh too well.”
“Which is okay with both of us,” Yelsey adds, grinning back.
The two seniors anchored the three-time defending national champion Cardinal team, who accumulated a 24-2 record but ultimately lost to UCLA, 4-2, in the NCAA semifinals on May 21. It was Stanford’s second loss in three years.
“We had a lot of good noise, but so did the UCLA contingent,” head coach Lele Forood says about the crowd. “They were the better team, and deserved to win.” Six former Cardinal players—Emilia Anderson, ’04, Alice Barnes, ’06, Erin Burdette, ’05, Kara Guzman, ’05, Joanna Kao, ’06, and Jessica Leck, ’06—turned out for the match at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
As the rest of the Cardinal team focused on what Forood says “has to be done differently, to get over the hurdle,” the three-time All-American co-captains were thinking about the challenges to come next year, when they’ll be playing on the professional circuit. Logar, who was No. 8 in collegiate rankings, will spend this month studying international business and marketing in Barcelona, and come fall, she’ll begin signing up for pro tournaments. Yelsey, ranked No. 17, is headed to Japan this summer to play in tournaments in Noto, Nagoya and possibly Miyazaki.
Yelsey is traveling with her former doubles partner, Amber Liu, ’06, who won the NCAA singles titles in 2003 and 2004. When Liu turned pro this year, she was among some 1,000 hopefuls playing in tournaments in order to move up the Women’s Tennis Association rankings ladder. Liu started in the 800s and now is ranked in the 300s, an increase that Forood calls “very ambitious.” But to move into the 200s, she adds, “you’ve got to beat a different level of player.” And to make the ranks of the top 100? “You’ve got to beat some really good players.”
Forood, who collected her third Pac-10 Coach of the Year award this season, ticks off former players who are still on the pro circuit, including Anne Kremer, ’00, Lilia Osterloh, ’00, and Laura Granville, ’03. “A lot of players dabble in it, play a year or two, and then decide they don’t want to continue, mostly from a lifestyle perspective,” Forood says. “They’d rather be working and moving forward with their careers than spending a lot of time running around the world, playing tennis.” It’s also an expensive proposition, costing the typical player $30,000 per year.
But perhaps because she was ranked 30th during her own foray on the pro circuit, Forood, ’78, understands why graduating seniors want to try their hand. “You’ve put a lot of your life into preparing for it, and it’s like, ‘Wow, if I don’t play at all after college, what was all that effort for?’”
Logar looks back on the season and is most proud of the home match she played on March 10 against Oregon, defeating Dominkia Dieskova (6-4, 7-5). “It was my birthday, and I couldn’t lose.” Often described as a fiery player, the redhead from Rochester Hills, Mich., also remembers an emotional turning point during her sophomore year. “I was in a tirade with myself for losing the first set,” she recalls. In the middle of the second set, Forood walked onto the court with a few succinct words: shush, or the coach would default her. “I’m not a quiet player,” Logar acknowledges. “But I didn’t say one more thing.”
Yelsey’s favorite memory from this season is the six alumni showing up at the NCAAs. “I’ll always love [them] for the way they acted when we were playing UCLA, and when we eventually lost. They were cheering, crying and feeling all the same emotions as the girls on the team, and it just shows how important Stanford tennis is to them, two or three years out of college.”
