Reigning NCAA Doubles Champions, Alabama’s Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe will have the opportunity to defend their title, as the Crimson Tide’s top duo advanced to its second straight national championship. Jansen and Routliffe punched their ticket to the championship round with a come-from-behind 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Stanford’s Caroline Doyle and Ellen Tsay in Sunday’s semifinals match. The Tide duo will square off against Cal’s Klara Fabikova and Zsofi Susanyi in Monday’s championship match. 
 
“What an overwhelming feeling of excitement,” said Routliffe. “Everyone at this tournament is really talented and we are just so excited to get back out there tomorrow. Maya and I are so thankful that we have the opportunity to play for another championship.” 
 
For the third consecutive match, Jansen and Routliffe found themselves facing an early deficit, as Stanford’s Doyle/Tsay took the opening set, 7-5. The Alabama duo tied the score at 4-4 after falling behind 4-2, but it was Stanford that took three of the final four games to win the set. 
 
“We were playing a little passive during the first set,” said Routliffe. “Stanford was doing a really good job of poaching the ball early, and they were hitting some great serves. We just missed out on a couple of opportunities and let the first set get away from us.”
 
Accustomed to shifting momentum, Jansen and Routliffe took the first two games of the second set, and held a 4-1 advantage before allowing Stanford to score its second point. Doyle and Tsay fought back to trim the lead to 4-3, but it was Jansen and Routliffe that rattled off back-to-back games to take the second set, 6-3. 
 
From there it was all Alabama, as the reigning champions took advantage of yet another momentum swing and ran away with the final set by a score of 6-0. 
 
“During the final two sets we really started to play more towards our strengths,” said Jansen. “We started to execute returns and first balls, and we did a good job of setting up the person in the net. In the first set we were hesitating, but after that we really started to go.” 
 
After capturing the Alabama women’s tennis program’s first national title a season ago, Jansen and Routliffe will now have the opportunity to defend that title against Cal’s Klara Fabikova and Zsofi Susanyi in Monday’s championship match. Times for tomorrow’s singles and doubles finals are still to be determined.

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