Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Stanford women reach NCAA final; top seed Cal upset

   A San Francisco Bay Area school will play for the NCAA Division I women's team title, but not the one most people expected.
   Stanford, ranked and seeded 15th, surprised sixth-ranked Vanderbilt, the defending champion, 4-2, on Monday in Tulsa, Okla. Cal, ranked second but seeded first, lost to 12th-ranked Oklahoma State 4-3.
   Freshman Caroline Lampl clinched Stanford's victory for a team-high seventh time, outlasting Fernanda Contreras 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3 on Court 5.
   Cal's Lynn Chi, ranked 80th, fell to Viktoriya Lushkova, ranked 66th, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the deciding match on Court 2.
  Chi, the NCAA runner-up as a sophomore in 2014, ended her Cal career. She was not selected for the NCAA singles or doubles tournaments, which start on Wednesday.
   About 600 fans made the one-hour drive from Stillwater, Okla., where Oklahoma State is located, to Tulsa to cheer on the Cowgirls (29-4).
   Cal finished the season at 23-2.
   Today's final is scheduled for 10 a.m. PDT (live streaming at ncaa.com).
   Stanford (19-5) has won a record 17 NCAA women's team titles, most recently in 2013. Florida is second with six.
   Oklahoma State (29-4) will take an 18-match winning streak into its first NCAA final.
   Today's 4 p.m. men's final (live streaming at ncaa.com) between top-ranked Virginia (29-4) and No. 11 Oklahoma (20-10) will be a rematch of last year's title contest, which the Cavaliers won 4-1 in Waco, Texas.
   Virginia rolled to a 4-0 victory over No. 13 Cal (21-6), and Oklahoma edged No. 7 Georgia 4-3.
   No. 33 Collin Altimirano, a Virginia sophomore from Sacramento, Calif., led No. 31 Andre Goransson 6-4, 2-3 on Court 2 when their match was abandoned.
   Virginia, which also won the title in 2013, will play in the final for the fifth time in six years. Oklahoma also was the runner-up (to USC) in 2014.
   The Sooners are coached by John Roddick, the older brother of former world No. 1 Andy Roddick.

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