NCAA Championship Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles

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Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

I know. More tennis, you ask? After that yesterday? We can't possibly handle it.

But lest you think tennis is done for the year, we have the individual singles and doubles tournaments coming up from Wake Forest. Most of the team will head back to Stanford, but Melissa Lord, Michaela Gordon, and Emily Arbuthnott, have more work to do on the tennis courts first. All three will participate in the singles tournament, which starts today, and Arbuthnott/Gordon will play in the doubles tournament starting tomorrow. Gordon is a (9-16) seed in singles--they seed the top 8 players in order, but then take the 9-16 players and randomly assign them to different sections of the draw--and Arbuthnott/Gordon are the 3 seed in doubles.

Singles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake/sports/w-tennis/auto_pdf/2017-18/misc_non_event/ncaa-womens-singles.pdf

Doubles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake/sports/w-tennis/auto_pdf/2017-18/misc_non_event/ncaa-womens-doubles.pdf

Overview

Gordon is already a singles All-American this year, and Arbuthnott/Gordon are already doubles All-Americans, because they were seeded in singles and doubles tournaments. So, for Lord and Arbuthnott in singles, the other ways to get that status are to (1) make the Round of 16, or (2) be ranked in the final Top 20 of the team tournament. Lord has a shot at the latter one, because of some solid wins in the NCAA tournament (#26 Sanford from UNC, #55 Chi from Duke, #75 Shaffer from Georgia, and last but not least, #10 Contreras from Vanderbilt), so if Lord wins her first match but loses her second, she still might get there. Arbuthnott will have to win two matches, though.

If Gordon wins her first match--and she should, as it's her biggest UTR advantage of the postseason--she could get a second round rematch with Hawaii's Petra Melounova (who beat Gordon in a bit of a surprise this year), if Melounova can upset #21 Gabriela Talaba of Texas Tech. Looming in the Round of 16, however, is #1 Bianca Turati of Texas, who has beaten Gordon twice this year, but Turati has to get past some pretty good players first, including UNC's Sanford, UCLA's Jada Hart, and Pepperdine's #1, Luisa Stefani.  (EDIT: Turati lost to Stefani in the first round, so Gordon's path is somewhat clearer.)

Lord and Arbuthnott both draw seeds, but I don't think there's anyone in the college tennis world that doesn't think Melissa Lord is a top 16 player right now. Lord plays FIU's Andrea Lazaro, the #13 player in the country, who has held her ranking on the strength of winning ITA Fall Nationals (the same tournament Arbuthnott/Gordon won in doubles), though playing in the middling C-USA has dragged it down somewhat. That should be a great one, if Lord can refocus her energies on singles after the team win yesterday, and Lord is actually a slight favorite in terms of UTR. But I'm prepared for some tired legs out there. She just clinched a team national championship, and that's the one that counts, so any individual hardware is just gravy.

Arbuthnott gets a tough draw, playing #4 Samantha Harris of Duke, who just beat Gordon in the team semifinals, but Arbuthnott is only at a slight UTR disadvantage, so she should be competitive.

In singles, if you want to #BackThePac, the following conference players are in the draw, in order of ranking:

(7) Ena Shibahara, UCLA
(9-16) Stacey Fung, UW (now through to second round)
Michaela Bayerlova, WSU (now through to second round)
Jada Hart, UCLA (now through to second round)
Gabby Smith, USC (lost in first round)
Julia Rosenqvist, Cal (lost in first round)
Alyssa Tobita, Oregon (lost in first round)
Anna Bright, Cal (lost in first round)
Vanessa Wong, UW (now through to second round)
Olivia Hauger, Cal (lost in first round)

(I've said it before, but it's kind of embarrassing for Cal that they have three players that qualified for this tournament, but couldn't get their team over the hump. That's the same number of qualifiers as Stanford, Vanderbilt, UNC, and Duke, more than several other seeds (Georgia Tech, UCLA, Texas, Texas Tech, Florida, and Oklahoma State had 2, and Georgia, Northwestern, South Carolina, and Ole Miss had just 1 apiece), and fewer than only Pepperdine's four. In one sense, I delight in such a profound failure, because it's really inexcusable, but it also affected us this year--if Cal is a Top 25 team this season, we're probably the #12 seed instead of the #15, though that turned out not to matter much. But in the future, it might be more consequential, so get it together, Cal. Get better--but not that much better.)

Wednesday, May 23 (all times Pacific):

Singles - Round of 64

The organizers kindly gave the Stanford and Vanderbilt players the last possible start times today, because they have to be exhausted.

12:30pm: #40 Melissa Lord vs. (9-16) Andrea Lazaro, Florida International (Lord by 0.15 in UTR)
1:00pm: (9-16) Michaela Gordon vs. #72 Fatima Bizhukova, Wichita State (Gordon by 0.71)
1:00pm: #43 Emily Arbuthnott vs. (4) Samantha Harris (Duke) (Arbuthnott trails by 0.07)

Thursday, May 24:

Singles - Round of 32

TBD

Doubles - Round of 32

Time TBD: (3) Arbuthnott/Gordon vs. #15 Carter/Davis (Wake Forest)

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - 2006alum - 05-23-2018

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, ColoradoTree! I'm really rooting for Gordon, because having to shoulder the burden of playing at #1 left her in the unenviable position of being the only player not to get a win during our run to the national championship. Her matches were either suspended or else she lost. I'm hoping for a deep run for her here.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - BobK - 05-23-2018

Great point on Gordon. A friend brought that up yesterday.

Colorado Tree you are a Cardboard Treasure. Thank you.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

(05-23-2018, 09:46 AM)2006alum Wrote: Thanks for keeping us in the loop, ColoradoTree! I'm really rooting for Gordon, because having to shoulder the burden of playing at #1 left her in the unenviable position of being the only player not to get a win during our run to the national championship. Her matches were either suspended or else she lost. I'm hoping for a deep run for her here.

Yeah, it's the plight of the #1 on a team with such tremendous depth. If you switch Lord and Gordon in the lineup, we could be gushing about Gordon's tournament rather than Lord's. Lots of teams have a legit #1 (even St. John's in the first round this year had a really good #1 in Livianu), but very few teams can hope to match our depth in May. She looked to be crying some happy tears in the post-match celebration, though, so while it had to bug her not to record a win, I assume she's OK with how it all went.

She lost to the #6 and #11 players in the last rankings (though after her tournament run, Sharma will comfortably be in the top 10 in the final rankings), with two of those four sets being tiebreakers, so she definitely held her own. She was very much in the four other matches when they were clinched, basically tied with the #2 and #29 players in the country, and leading the #12 and #118 players (and again, SJU's Livianu is much, much better than #118, but a weak Big East crushed her ranking) when the matches were clinched. She was, and is, terrific--she's the #1 on the national champion! But man, winning consistently at #1 is a very high bar.

One benefit to having most of our matches end quickly is that Gordon's on court time has been kept to a reasonable amount, so hopefully she's physically in good enough shape to make that deep run. More rest would have been nice for all of our players, but on the other hand, they're playing very well right now, and longer layoffs for their opponents could mean some rust those players have to knock off (except Duke's Harris, who just played Monday). We'll see soon enough!

(05-23-2018, 10:54 AM)BobK Wrote: Great point on Gordon. A friend brought that up yesterday.

Colorado Tree you are a Cardboard Treasure. Thank you.

Thanks, Bob. From a Cardboard legend like you, that means a lot! This team deserves a greater spotlight on what they accomplish, so I'm happy to provide it, even if it's just to this limited audience.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

Lord's match is starting now, and can be streamed here: https://www.playsight.com/#/livestreaming/tennis/wake-forest-university/court-106

Live stats are available here: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=219365

If Lord can get through, she'll have a rematch vs. Duke's Meible Chi for a trip to the Round of 16 (and All-American status). Lord beat Chi 6-2, 7-6 (0) on Monday.

Arbuthnott and Gordon will start their matches when there's an open court; they're up next.

All three Cal players lost in the first round. Hauger lost to a seed, so that's fine, but Rosenqvist played a comparable player and Bright was the favorite. *strains eyes from rolling them so hard*

A mixed bag in Lord's first set. She went up 2-0, then down 3-5 with Lazaro serving for the set, but broke her at love to get back on serve at 4-5 before getting broken at love herself to give the set to Lazaro, 6-4. She's down an early break in the second, 0-2. Definitely looks a little tired, and that has led to more unforced errors than usual.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - qwerty49 - 05-23-2018

Colorado Tree, you are just a great fan! Thanks for all your coverage!

I may have missed it, but can you tell us the criteria for who gets into singles and doubles play?

I noticed, for example that Lampl, who played #3 for us in the championship, is not playing but that Arbuthnott, who played #4, is.

Which organization does the seeding? The NCAA? Do you know who is on the seeding committee?

(05-23-2018, 09:27 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: I know. More tennis, you ask? After that yesterday? We can't possibly handle it.

But lest you think tennis is done for the year, we have the individual singles and doubles tournaments coming up from Wake Forest. Most of the team will head back to Stanford, but Melissa Lord, Michaela Gordon, and Emily Arbuthnott, have more work to do on the tennis courts first. All three will participate in the singles tournament, which starts today, and Arbuthnott/Gordon will play in the doubles tournament starting tomorrow. Gordon is a (9-16) seed in singles--they seed the top 8 players in order, but then take the 9-16 players and randomly assign them to different sections of the draw--and Arbuthnott/Gordon are the 3 seed in doubles.

Singles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake/sports/w-tennis/auto_pdf/2017-18/misc_non_event/ncaa-womens-singles.pdf

Doubles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake/sports/w-tennis/auto_pdf/2017-18/misc_non_event/ncaa-womens-doubles.pdf

Overview

Gordon is already a singles All-American this year, and Arbuthnott/Gordon are already doubles All-Americans, because they were seeded in singles and doubles tournaments. So, for Lord and Arbuthnott in singles, the other ways to get that status are to (1) make the Round of 16, or (2) be ranked in the final Top 20 of the team tournament. Lord has a shot at the latter one, because of some solid wins in the NCAA tournament (#26 Sanford from UNC, #55 Chi from Duke, #75 Shaffer from Georgia, and last but not least, #10 Contreras from Vanderbilt), so if Lord wins her first match but loses her second, she still might get there. Arbuthnott will have to win two matches, though.

If Gordon wins her first match--and she should, as it's her biggest UTR advantage of the postseason--she could get a second round rematch with Hawaii's Petra Melounova (who beat Gordon in a bit of a surprise this year), if Melounova can upset #21 Gabriela Talaba of Texas Tech. Looming in the Round of 16, however, is #1 Bianca Turati of Texas, who has beaten Gordon twice this year, but Turati has to get past some pretty good players first, including UNC's Sanford, UCLA's Jada Hart, and Pepperdine's #1, Luisa Stefani.  (EDIT: Turati lost to Stefani in the first round, so Gordon's path is somewhat clearer.)

Lord and Arbuthnott both draw seeds, but I don't think there's anyone in the college tennis world that doesn't think Melissa Lord is a top 16 player right now. Lord plays FIU's Andrea Lazaro, the #13 player in the country, who has held her ranking on the strength of winning ITA Fall Nationals (the same tournament Arbuthnott/Gordon won in doubles), though playing in the middling C-USA has dragged it down somewhat. That should be a great one, if Lord can refocus her energies on singles after the team win yesterday, and Lord is actually a slight favorite in terms of UTR. But I'm prepared for some tired legs out there. She just clinched a team national championship, and that's the one that counts, so any individual hardware is just gravy.

Arbuthnott gets a tough draw, playing #4 Samantha Harris of Duke, who just beat Gordon in the team semifinals, but Arbuthnott is only at a slight UTR disadvantage, so she should be competitive.

In singles, if you want to #BackThePac, the following conference players are in the draw, in order of ranking:

(7) Ena Shibahara, UCLA
(9-16) Stacey Fung, UW (now through to second round)
Michaela Bayerlova, WSU (now through to second round)
Jada Hart, UCLA (now through to second round)
Gabby Smith, USC (lost in first round)
Julia Rosenqvist, Cal (lost in first round)
Alyssa Tobita, Oregon (lost in first round)
Anna Bright, Cal (lost in first round)
Vanessa Wong, UW (now through to second round)
Olivia Hauger, Cal (lost in first round)

(I've said it before, but it's kind of embarrassing for Cal that they have three players that qualified for this tournament, but couldn't get their team over the hump. That's the same number of qualifiers as Stanford, Vanderbilt, UNC, and Duke, more than several other seeds (Georgia Tech, UCLA, Texas, Texas Tech, Florida, and Oklahoma State had 2, and Georgia, Northwestern, South Carolina, and Ole Miss had just 1 apiece), and fewer than only Pepperdine's four. In one sense, I delight in such a profound failure, because it's really inexcusable, but it also affected us this year--if Cal is a Top 25 team this season, we're probably the #12 seed instead of the #15, though that turned out not to matter much. But in the future, it might be more consequential, so get it together, Cal. Get better--but not that much better.)

Wednesday, May 23 (all times Pacific):

Singles - Round of 64

The organizers kindly gave the Stanford and Vanderbilt players the last possible start times today, because they have to be exhausted.

12:30pm: #40 Melissa Lord vs. (9-16) Andrea Lazaro, Florida International (Lord by 0.15 in UTR)
1:00pm: (9-16) Michaela Gordon vs. #72 Fatima Bizhukova, Wichita State (Gordon by 0.71)
1:00pm: #43 Emily Arbuthnott vs. (4) Samantha Harris (Duke) (Arbuthnott trails by 0.07)

Thursday, May 24:

Singles - Round of 32

TBD

Doubles - Round of 32

Time TBD: (3) Arbuthnott/Gordon vs. #15 Carter/Davis (Wake Forest)

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

Qwerty, thanks! The NCAA singles and doubles fields are made up of (1) automatic qualifiers, i.e., the top-ranked player from each conference that has a player ranked in the Top 125 for singles, and some similar approach for doubles, and (2) at-large selections, which are based on ITA ranking. Arbuthnott is in because her ITA ranking is currently #43, while Lampl's is in the 90s. Much of that is because Arbuthnott had a really nice fall season, beating a number of highly-ranked players (including Melissa Lord at the Northwest Regionals), while Lampl's fall wasn't as successful. Arbuthnott started the year as the #2 on our team with Lord out, but switched with Lampl partway through the season, and then bumped down to #4 once Lord came back. So, while in our team's internal pecking order, Lampl is above Arbuthnott, Arbuthnott still has a better resume over the course of the year, and thus, a higher ranking.

There is a NCAA tennis committee that does seeding for both the team event and the individual events, but historically, they stick very close to ITA rankings for both efforts. (They'll take things like head-to-head results into account for determining seeds, so #2 Vandy was given the #1 seed in the team tournament due to its head to head win over #1 UNC, but they have a heck of a lot more discretion than they use.) Not sure who's actually on the committee, though.

And Lord falls, 6-4, 6-1, in a match where she just didn't seem to have the energy to give it her best. That's the downside of this tournament, as players who did well to help their teams advance further in the team tournament are at something of a disadvantage, because they just don't have much left in the tank.

Arbuthnott got a stroke of luck, as Duke's Samantha Harris has apparently withdrawn from the tournament. That said, her replacement is South Carolina's #1 player, Ingrid Gamarra Martins, so it's only kinda lucky, but it takes her from a 0.07 UTR disadvantage to a 0.30 UTR advantage, so her chances definitely look better.

Here's a link to video of Gordon's match: https://www.playsight.com/#/livestreaming/tennis/wake-forest-university/court-101
And here's a link to Arbuthnott's match: http://www.wakeforestsports.com/collegesportslive/?media=437707. The video on the Lower Courts (Gordon's match) is so much better than the Leighton Family Courts, so you might just follow along with live stats.

Arbuthnott was down a break early but has leveled at 3-3, while Gordon is on serve, up 3-2

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - martyup - 05-23-2018

Does Lord's loss break her streak, or was that just in team play?

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

(05-23-2018, 02:32 PM)martyup Wrote: Does Lord's loss break her streak, or was that just in team play?

Just in team play, so the streak stands.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - martyup - 05-23-2018

(05-23-2018, 02:34 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote:
(05-23-2018, 02:32 PM)martyup Wrote: Does Lord's loss break her streak, or was that just in team play?

Just in team play, so the streak stands.

Right on! Thanks CT

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - Viking_Guy - 05-23-2018

Arbuthnott's opponent is the woman who tried the quick serve in the deciding match of their match with Georgia referenced previously.

Which makes me glad she took the first set 6-3.

VG

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

Gordon leads 6-2, 2-1 (on serve)
Arbuthnott leads 6-3, 2-2

If Gordon wins, she'll face Texas Tech's #1 player, Gabriela Talaba, who needed three sets to get past Hawaii's Melounova. Talaba is ranked #21, but Gordon has a 0.30 UTR advantage.

If Arbuthnott wins, she'll face Florida's #2, Josie Kuhlman, who beat Caroline Lampl in three sets back in February. Kuhlman is ranked #52, but has a tiny UTR lead of 0.02 over Arbuthnott, so it should be a good one.

You won't see Lele Forood or Frankie Brennan doing on-court coaching of our players, though you'll see it with many other teams. The tournament that matters to them is over, and advancing in this one is entirely on the players.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - 2006alum - 05-23-2018

(05-23-2018, 03:05 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: You won't see Lele Forood or Frankie Brennan doing on-court coaching of our players, though you'll see it with many other teams. The tournament that matters to them is over, and advancing in this one is entirely on the players.

I'm not sure I totally follow the logic. We still tally number of individual national championships, and the school sends out releases in the past when players like Nicole Gibbs won the whole thing. And aren't players automatically given All-American status if they advance far enough in the tournament? And don't schools count their number of AA's? Also, isn't it pretty unlikely that a player's personal coach (to the degree players even have them in college) would be able to be in attendance?

I guess I don't mind if it's on the principle of, "tennis is an individual sport, so I want you to rely on yourself out there, and I think this'll help you more in the long run" but I do mind it if the idea is "Stanford's stakes here are over, so this one is all on you." If other schools' players get coaching during the individual tournament, and everyone wants to have the bragging rights, I don't see why we should forfeit something that might help our players bring home the individual bacon?

(And note that I follow professional tennis far more closely than college, and loath the WTA's on-court coaching policy, so it's not that I am advocating for on-court coaching - I just don't understand why our coaches think their work here is done.)

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2018

(05-23-2018, 03:44 PM)2006alum Wrote:
(05-23-2018, 03:05 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: You won't see Lele Forood or Frankie Brennan doing on-court coaching of our players, though you'll see it with many other teams. The tournament that matters to them is over, and advancing in this one is entirely on the players.

I'm not sure I totally follow the logic. We still tally number of individual national championships, and the school sends out releases in the past when players like Nicole Gibbs won the whole thing. And aren't players automatically given All-American status if they advance far enough in the tournament? And don't schools count their number of AA's? Also, isn't it pretty unlikely that a player's personal coach (to the degree players even have them in college) would be able to be in attendance?

I guess I don't mind if it's on the principle of, "tennis is an individual sport, so I want you to rely on yourself out there, and I think this'll help you more in the long run" but I do mind it if the idea is "Stanford's stakes here are over, so this one is all on you." If other schools' players get coaching during the individual tournament, and everyone wants to have the bragging rights, I don't see why we should forfeit something that might help our players bring home the individual bacon?

(And note that I follow professional tennis far more closely than college, and loath the WTA's on-court coaching policy, so it's not that I am advocating for on-court coaching - I just don't understand why our coaches think their work here is done.)

You’re not wrong. Lord, in particular, could have used a pick-me-up at several points in the match. I’m not sure why we don’t do it—I was guessing at their motive and being a bit flip. Assuming good faith, your former explanation is probably right.

They’ll be starting up again after the rain delay. Gordon is on Leighton 3 and Arbuthnott is on Leighton 5. Those video streams are trash, so I’ll just be sticking with live stats.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - Viking_Guy - 05-23-2018

Gordon wins over Wichita's Bizhukova 6-2, 6-3. Arbuthnott wins over South Carolina's #1 Gamarra Martins 6-3, 7-5.

Gordon against Talaba (Texas Tech) tomorrow at 11 AM ET. Arbuthnott against Florida's Kuhlman at the same time.

Mostly chalk, with two notable exceptions - the withdrawal of Arbuthnott's original opponent, and, in Gordon's bracket - #1 overall seed Bianca Turati losing her opening match to 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 to Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani. Stefani plays Jada Hart from UCLA tomorrow (at 8 AM ET - wonder how those two West Coasters are going to do at that hour?), with the winner facing the winner of Gordon-Talaba.

VG

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - martyup - 05-23-2018

If Arbuthnott wins her next match, she might be facing Vandy's Sharma. Gordon lost to her in the team NC match.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2018

As action started today, 7 Pac-12 players remained in the final 32, including two each from Stanford, UCLA, and UW, as well as Michaela Bayerlova from Washington State.

Today hasn't been as kind so far, as the Pac-12 is 0-4 on the day. UW's Vanessa Wong lost to 6th-seeded Arianne Hartono of Ole Miss, UCLA's Jada Hart lost to Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani (who beat the #1 seed yesterday), UW's Stacey Fung got upset by Veronica Miroshnichenko from Loyola Marymount, and WSU's Bayerlova lost in three tough sets to (9-16) Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine. The first two results are expected, and Miroshnichenko was ranked as the #10 freshman in the preseason rankings this year and is ranked #48 despite playing a weak conference, so while it's disappointing, Fung lost to a legit player. And a really nice fight from Bayerlova; no shame there.

That leaves just three players with a chance to advance:

(7) Ena Shibahara (UCLA) (won her first set 6-2 over a player from Idaho)
Emily Arbuthnott (warming up now) - her match is on Court 1 of the Lower Courts, which has nice live video
(9-16) Michaela Gordon (warming up now) - her match is on Court 6 of the Leighton Family Courts, where the video isn't as good

Note: while schools keep track of individual national championships, we have so many more individual national championships than UCLA that it's embarrassing for them (497 to 270, per Wikipedia). I'd obviously prefer Gordon to win this one, and for Arbuthnott to make a deep run (like martyup noted, Sharma looms, and that's probably too tall an order), but if Shibahara ends up winning it (she was the preseason #1 player, after all), we still lead 117-116 in team championships, I'll be happy for the Pac-12's tennis reputation to get a shot in the arm by adding an individual title to the team title.

By contrast, three Pepperdine players are through to the Round of 16. I remain stunned that Pepperdine didn't roll right over Georgia Tech--they had the talent to do it, clearly. There's no team in the country that has more talent than Pepperdine, yet while Stanford routinely overperforms its low seeds, Pepperdine doesn't.

Duke's Kelly Chen, who was down a break to Arbuthnott in the third set on Monday, is now an All-American after knocking off UNC's Makenna Jones. I get so used to players playing at their position that my mind can't handle the chaos of seeing #3s and #4s play (and beat!) #1s.

Of the nine players to reach the Round of 16 so far, the West Coast Conference leads with 4, the ACC has 3, the SEC has 2, and it's goose eggs for the Big 12, Big Ten, and Pac-12. The Big Ten doesn't even have anyone left in the draw, while the Big 12 and Pac-12 each have 3 players still with a chance.

Both Arbuthnott and Gordon down early, but Gordon is in worse shape:

Arbuthnott trails 3-4 (down a break)
Gordon trails 1-6, 0-0

Really sloppy display from Gordon so far. Lots of forehands into the net, spraying shots wide, etc. It's clearly frustrating her that she can't get her game right. She's serving to open the second, so a hold could get her started on a better path.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2018

Aaaaaand Gordon is broken to start the second. But she broke back! But then she was broken again. But she broke back again! 2-2 in the second.

Good: Arbuthnott broke Kuhlman to get back level at 4-4 in the first! Bad: she was broken right back, and Kuhlman held to take the first set 6-4. It's a competitive match, though, and I kind of expect Arbuthnott to force a third.

Oh, and it looks like Frankie Brennan was there to talk to Arbuthnott during that set, so the lack of coaching yesterday may have been just due to the coaches having other responsibilities, like getting the rest of the team to the airport and on planes, and probably Lele heading back with them. *shrugs*

Gordon is finally settling into this match. After breaking to level the match at 2-2, she had a routine hold, got another break, and held to lead 5-2.

Arbuthnott broken in the opening game of the second, however, and despite being up 15-40 on Kuhlman's serve, couldn't break back, and she's down 6-4, 2-0.

Gordon trails 1-6, 6-3, 2-3 (Gordon broke Talaba in the opening game of the third set, then lost 3 straight, and broke on deuce point to get back on serve)
Arbuthnott trails 4-6, 5-3 (was down 2-0, won 4 straight, and then got broken, but broke back on deuce point and will serve for the set)

Ugh. Arbuthnott was up 5-3, with deuce point on her serve, and had an overhead for the set, and she dumped it into the net. Still up 5-4, but back on serve. Big missed opportunity, but she has to forget about it immediately.

Gordon is back on serve in her third set, 3-3.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2018

Nice job bouncing back from Arbuthnott, who breaks right back and takes the second set. (She was promptly broken in the first game, but it's not like Kuhlman has been serving well, either.) Frankie was out there with Gordon for a while, but talked to Arbuthnott on the set break to get her third set started the right way.

Drama in Gordon's match! A close line call by Gordon on deuce point (it was either wide like she called it, or it just caught the line--I couldn't say for sure based on the video), the chair umpire doesn't overrule, and Talaba and her coaches are heated. That was a few minutes of arguing, but Gordon's call stands, and she gets the pivotal break to go up 4-3 in the third.

Well, whether Michaela's line call was correct or not, Talaba responded to the situation better and came out strong in the next game, breaking right back to level at 4-4.

Biiiiig break for Gordon, and she's up 5-4 and will serve for the match.

Meanwhile, Arbuthnott broke back and held to go up 2-1 in her third.

Three terrific points to open Gordon's service game, but they all go Talaba's way. But after a service winner and two great points of her own, Gordon forced a deuce point that was also a match point for her. After another lengthy point--this is great tennis, by the way--Talaba got the break and we're back on serve at 5-5. Darn. Gordon has stayed aggressive, and got to a deuce point on Talaba's serve, but Talaba held to go up 6-5, and Gordon will serve to force a tiebreaker for the match.

Arbuthnott, for her part, broke again and consolidated, and is now serving up 4-2 in the third.

Arbuthnott was broken, so it's now back on serve at 4-3 in the third, and that causes a visit to the mound, with Frankie trying to get her back on track.

Gordon held a deuce point to force a tiebreaker. Great drama!

Talaba up a minibreak early, 2-0. But Gordon wins the next three and gets the minibreak back, going up 3-2 before Talaba wins the next point on Gordon's serve, and we're 3-3 as they change ends. Gordon has been terrific at the end of this first set. When she's losing points, it's because she's perhaps being a bit too aggressive and just missing deep or wide. But she is working the angles, and Talaba is just trying to get many of these back. Now back down a minibreak, with Talaba serving up 4-3. Talaba won both points to get within a point of the match at 6-3, but Gordon wins both her points to get to 5-6.

Frankie's pep talk worked, as Arbuthnott broke right back and then held a deuce point to win her match 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Sigh. Talaba takes it, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5). A great match between two great players. And Emily Arbuthnott is a singles All-American!

Doubles is in under 2 hours--not ideal after two long matches.

In the Round of 16, there are 4 players each from the ACC, SEC, and the West Coast Conference, 2 from the Pac-12, 1 from the Big 12, and 1 from the AAC.

Arbuthnott's reward for making the Round of 16 and securing All-American status in singles is to play Vanderbilt's Astra Sharma, who only lost one game in her match today. Emily will fight, because that's what she does, but I just can't see it.

Doubles still to come today, but Stanford's All-American honors are set. Michaela Gordon and Emily Arbuthnott are All-Americans in both singles and doubles.

RE: Women's Tennis: NCAA Singles and Doubles - 2006alum - 05-24-2018

Whew! I can't imagine how exhausted the players are. I'm exhausted just trying to follow your live updates! So we now have three singles All-Americans, right? Gordon and Lord already were, and now Arbuthnott is too?

And it puts some of our past performances in perspective, specifically Liu and Gibbs winning the singles tournament the same year we won the whole thing (2004 and 2013, respectively), and when Barnes and Burdette(, Erin) and Barte and Burdette(, Lindsay) won the doubles in team-winning years (2005 and 2010, respectively). Particularly given how many gutsy 4-3 wins our team has pulled off to win those past championships, to turn right around and power through a singles and/or doubles draw really takes focus, guts, and conditioning.