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Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - DC 86 - 05-23-2017

Davidson played her heart out but lost, Florida champs.

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - TheFarm07 - 05-23-2017

Davidson falls 6-2 in the 3rd. Florida wins 4-1

It was a great run to the finals again. Congrats to the team for having another great year. Very proud of them!

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - terry - 05-23-2017

A great run for the Stanford women. Just a little bit short at the end, but they still can be proud!

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - BobK - 05-23-2017

Taylor Davidson will forever be one of my favorite Stanford athletes ever.  And I go back a few years.

Just not to be tonight.  Congrats to Florida 

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - DC 86 - 05-23-2017

(05-23-2017, 08:04 PM)BobK link Wrote:Taylor Davidson will forever be one of my favorite Stanford athletes ever.  And I go back a few years.

Just not to be tonight.  Congrats to Florida
The Florida coach singled her out and praised her as a great competitor in the post match interview.

She will be missed, a real fighter and gamer.

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - oldalum - 05-23-2017

Terrific season from start to finish: 2 losses to Florida which was just too strong this year, and one at Pepperdine. They inspire with their grit and determination, led by Taylor who is the personification of those qualities. And what terrific representatives of Stanford on and off the court. Thanks to all of them!!

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - fullmetal - 05-23-2017

Congrats to the Stanford women for a season that all but two teams in the whole of Division I women's tennis would have loved to have had--national runner-up isn't bad, and it was a tough road to the championship match given Stanford's underseeding.  This team just fights, and that's inspirational and aspirational for the rest of us on so many levels.

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - BostonCard - 05-24-2017

From Davidson...

https://twitter.com/taylor_lee44/status/867232283341856768

Quote:taylor_lee44: Played my last match for Stanford tonight & can honestly say I left it all out there on court. I'll bleed Cardinal red forever 🎾❤

BC

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2017

A great season, and it's hard to feel too bad about losing to Florida, which was a buzz saw this year for the most part.  When Higuchi gets double bageled for her very first loss of the dual match season, it's probably not going to be our day. 

Had timing worked out a little bit differently, it looked like Arbuthnott was going to win her match (serving up a break at 4-2), and Lampl was on serve in her third set as well (serving at 4-5, 30-0), so we were on track to pick up at least a second point and maybe a third.  But 4-3 is still a loss, and we would have needed Davidson's match as well.  After a marathon match and a career full of third-set clinchers, she had nothing left to give.  That she was even playing yesterday is impressive, let alone continuing to play at a high level.  We were lucky to have her. 

It was also the last Stanford team match for Caroline Doyle, and though her career hasn't contained the same late-match heroics as
Davidson's, we don't win the national title last year without her. 

They're not done yet, though.  Doyle, Lord, and Davidson still have the singles tournament, which starts today, and Arbuthnott/Davidson have the doubles tournament, which starts tomorrow.  Unclear whether Taylor's tweet means she's going to withdraw, but if she plays, she'll do so at 4:30pm ET/1:30 PT.  Lord's match is at the same time, and Doyle's is at 5:00pm ET/2:00 PT. 

Singles Round 1:

#54 Davidson vs. #49 Ingrid Gamarra Martins (South Carolina's #1)
#28 Lord vs. #36 Johnisse Renaud (Georgia Tech's #2)
#38 Doyle vs. #45 Shannon Hudson (the Arkansas #1)

Doubles Round 1:

#39 Davidson/Arbuthnott  vs. #5 Maddie Pothoff/Erin Routliffe (Alabama)

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - oldalum - 05-24-2017

(05-24-2017, 08:21 AM)ColoradoTree link Wrote:#39 Davidson/Arbuthnott  vs. #5 Maddie Pothoff/Erin Routliffe (Alabama)
Tough first matchup: Routliffe is a 2-time NCAA doubles champion (with partner Maya Jansen who transferred to Cal this year).

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - oldalum - 05-24-2017

Lord and Doyle are warming up on McWhorter courts 3 and 4. Nice that they get to play next to each other like they do in team matches.
live stream is not working on 4. Lord's opponent is a tall lefty with a strong serve. I hate those.

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2017

Looks like Lord won her match in three sets and Doyle fell in straight sets. Lord moves on to face Florida's Woolcock, who steamrolled Doyle yesterday.



Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2017

Thinking ahead to next year, here's what we and our perennial Pac-12 competitors have in store:

What they're doing:

* UCLA.  They had an up and down season, finishing 4th, despite the emergence of freshman Eni Shibahara as one of the nation's best.  All six singles players return for next year, so they should be improved.  And that's before adding two blue-chip, Top 10 recruits in Caroline Dolehide and Helen Altick.  I'd expect them to be our top competition in the Pac-12, and it shouldn't be surprising to see them tabbed as the favorite.  And they might well be the better team in January, February, and March.  But we'll probably be better again in April and May. 

* SC.  They underperformed even more than UCLA did, finishing 6th in the conference.  They lose only Zoe Katz to graduation, but late in the season, they didn't use her in singles anyway, so they're mostly on track.  Their recruiting is unclear (Sydney Van Alphen would have been part of this class, but she enrolled early and ended up playing #6 much of the year).  They should be somewhat improved. 

* Cal. They finished second in the Pac-12, and they were good enough for a national seed (13th) before falling to Vanderbilt in the NCAAs.  They lose some key pieces: Maya Jansen, who played #5 for much of the year and is a great doubles player; Maegan Manasse, their top player; Denise Starr, their #3; and Stephane Lin, who sometimes played #6.  They add just one player, blue chip Anna Bright, and they'd have 6 other players returning, but some of those are non-scholarship players.  Seems fair to expect a dip in form from them next year, but they'll still be dangerous. 

We also saw Arizona State, Washington, and Oregon make some strides this year, but as programs, they're still finding their way, so I'm not inclined to look too closely.  (That said, ASU loses Kassidy Jump at #1 and a couple of other lesser contributors, Washington loses Nour Abbes at #3, and it doesn't look like Oregon loses anyone from their singles lineup.) 

What we're doing:

And as a reminder (and apologies for repeating some information from earlier in the thread), Stanford loses both Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle to graduation.  We've got two blue chip, Top 10 caliber players coming in, however, in Michaela Gordon and Janice Shin.  Also coming is Paly's Avanika Narayan, a 3-star recruit.  FYI, tennis recruiting isn't generally like football where you can see 3 star players develop into monsters.  The ranking system goes: (1) blue chips (there are 33 this year); (2) five stars (50+); (3) four stars (maybe 80-90); (4) three stars (150 or so); and on down through two and one stars.  At the top schools, blue chips play, and even 5-star players are often just depth, so we have to adjust our football recruiting metrics for tennis.  (On this year's roster, all six singles players were either blue chips or were top international players (blue chips are only domestic players), and Kimberly Yee was a blue chip that largely didn't play.)

On the scholarship front, tennis is a headcount sport and it has 8 scholarships available.  This year and last year, we've only had 7 scholarship players on the roster, possibly because we didn't take any players in 2014, which means that next year's roster will have no scholarship seniors.  Three juniors (Lord, Lampl, and Kimberly Yee), two sophomores (Arbuthnott and Higuchi), and two freshmen (Gordon and Shin).  As walk-ons, in addition to Narayan, we'll also have former 4-star recruit Elizabeth Yao (a junior from Sunnyvale), former 3-star recruit Naomie Rosenberg (a junior from Los Angeles), and Paulette Wolak (a senior from Los Altos Hills).  Or, at least, I assume those are walk-ons.  It's possible they gave one of them a scholarship, but I have long assumed that the team has stayed at 7 scholarship athletes so that they could take someone in next year's class and avoid a situation where you're replacing most of your singles lineup in one year. 

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - BobK - 05-25-2017

Great awesome world class summary Tree.    My bad on the partial comment.  With only 6 headcount sports I should remember them:
Football
Women's volleyball
Men and women's basketball
Women's Tennis
Women's gymnastics





Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - StanfordMatt - 05-25-2017

ColoradoTree, isn't the reason why we only had seven scholarship players this year because we had one reserved for CiCi Bellis? I mentioned her in passing in another post and I know she's been brought up on this board before, but for those who aren't aware, Bellis opted to turn pro in September after reaching the the third round of the U.S. Open. She had previously committed to Stanford in July while competing in the Bank of the West Classic which is a WTA event held on Stanford's campus. While she would've only been a freshman this year, I think it's safe to say that she easily would've been one of the most dominant players college women's tennis has ever seen. Crazy to think that we still reached the finals this year despite missing out on such an elite talent. 

is coaching not allowed in singles? - oldalum - 05-25-2017

didn't see any of our coaches during Lord's match (but I only checked in sporadically).

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2017

(05-25-2017, 10:15 AM)StanfordMatt link Wrote:ColoradoTree, isn't the reason why we only had seven scholarship players this year because we had one reserved for CiCi Bellis? I mentioned her in passing in another post and I know she's been brought up on this board before, but for those who aren't aware, Bellis opted to turn pro in September after reaching the the third round of the U.S. Open. She had previously committed to Stanford in July while competing in the Bank of the West Classic which is a WTA event held on Stanford's campus. While she would've only been a freshman this year, I think it's safe to say that she easily would've been one of the most dominant players college women's tennis has ever seen. Crazy to think that we still reached the finals this year despite missing out on such an elite talent.

It's fun to imagine what might have been.  Boy howdy, she would have been something else at Taube. 

But to answer your question, "yes, with qualifications."  She definitely had an offer, and Arbuthnott and Higuchi had already committed a few months before Bellis did, if I remember correctly, so her commitment meant she would have brought the roster to the full eight scholarships.  She begged off just a couple months later, but the entire time, I think both Lele and Cici (now there's a R&B duo just waiting to happen) were on the same page.  Cici certainly made no bones about the fact that she was still actively considering turning pro and that she would do just that if her rankings continued to climb (they did, and she did).  And I remember Lele saying something after Cici turned pro that it was always a 50/50 proposition that Bellis would ever enroll, even with the verbal commitment--more of a "if I go to college, I'll go to Stanford" commitment.  But certainly, if Bellis had decided to enroll, we would have been thrilled to give her that 8th scholarship. 

I doubt that Lele's intent in playing with 6 or 7 scholarship athletes most recent years (we had a full deck last year when we won the title) was with an eye toward potentially landing Bellis, though.  I think that, absent the availability of a player of Bellis's caliber, Lele sticks with 7 and keeps a spot open for a 2018 player.  Of course, as we all realized at the time, we knew Bellis was potentially a one-and-done, and at most a two-and-done.  So, she would have freed up a scholarship that year anyway.  Either way, taking Bellis would have been a tremendous coup. 

To illustrate what I'm saying, here's the roster movement over the last several years:

2018: Set to play year with 7 scholarships; will hopefully lose no one; will add TBD
2017: Played year with 7 scholarships; lost Davidson and Doyle; added Gordon and Shin
2016: Played year with 8 scholarships; lost Zhao, Hardebeck, and Kostas; added Higuchi and Arbuthnott
2015: Played year with 6 scholarships; lost Ellen Tsay; added Lampl, Lord, and Yee
2014: Played year with 7 scholarships: lost Kristie Ahn, added *no one*
2013: Played year with 6 scholarships: lost Nicole Gibbs, Stacey Tan; added Zhao, Davidson, and Doyle

I'd be interested to learn what happened in that 2014 recruiting cycle.  Did we just whiff on some folks we had lined up?  Tennis recruiting is a tricky thing, given how few spots are available each year: just 1 or 2, and maybe 3 in a crazy year (2015 counts as crazy--when you have three interested blue chips that qualify academically, you throw roster balance out the window and you take them).  If you think you have someone locked up and she turns pro, or she flips at the last minute, you're sunk.  Or maybe it was just a down year for smart, blue chip tennis players? 

Of course, there's a wrinkle with the Cici Bellis recruiting saga.  Around the same time Higuchi and Arbuthnott committed, so did 5-star Lexi Milunovich from Connecticut, who would have been our 8th scholarship.  At some point, she must have decommitted, because she was listed in a July article as a Harvard commit.  Not clear what her status ever really was, or whether she was ever offered a scholarship or told that she had one if Bellis didn't come.  But it's at least possible that we were planning on taking Milunovich as our 8th, Bellis started showing more interest, we then naturally cooled on Milunovich, and she jumped ship for a place that wanted her more.  (She played #3 for Harvard this year.)

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2017

Oh, and the season is officially over, by the way.  Lord lost in singles and Arbuthnott/Davidson lost in doubles.

The NCAA All-Tournament Team was announced, and we had three of the six singles selections: Lord at #2; Davidson at #3; and Arbuthnott at #5. 

It's been a fun postseason ride with you folks.  Let's do it again sometime. 

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - TheFarm07 - 05-25-2017

(05-25-2017, 09:10 PM)ColoradoTree link Wrote:Oh, and the season is officially over, by the way.  Lord lost in singles and Arbuthnott/Davidson lost in doubles.

The NCAA All-Tournament Team was announced, and we had three of the six singles selections: Lord at #2; Davidson at #3; and Arbuthnott at #5. 

It's been a fun postseason ride with you folks.  Let's do it again sometime.

Thanks ColoradoTree for all of your insight and analyses of the matches, opponents and the team's future. Don't know too much about the collegiate tennis scene, so it was great to read your write-ups and get a better understanding of our team and what we were up against

Re: NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2017

(05-25-2017, 09:19 PM)TheFarm07 link Wrote:[quote author=ColoradoTree link=topic=16887.msg194018#msg194018 date=1495771805]
Oh, and the season is officially over, by the way.  Lord lost in singles and Arbuthnott/Davidson lost in doubles.

The NCAA All-Tournament Team was announced, and we had three of the six singles selections: Lord at #2; Davidson at #3; and Arbuthnott at #5. 

It's been a fun postseason ride with you folks.  Let's do it again sometime.

Thanks ColoradoTree for all of your insight and analyses of the matches, opponents and the team's future. Don't know too much about the collegiate tennis scene, so it was great to read your write-ups and get a better understanding of our team and what we were up against
[/quote]

I already follow the dual match season pretty closely (it's where my Stanford fan eyes turn after the bowl game), so if there's any interest, I'd be happy to do some quick write ups and/or previews on here once that gets started in late January.  If next year's schedule follows the same format as recent years, we'll see some cupcake dual matches to start things off, where we'll learn precisely zero about how good the team is.  Then we'll play a few non-conference matches against Top 10 teams (Florida is highly likely to be on the schedule) as early measuring sticks before the conference season gets started.Â