Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - Printable Version
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Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-02-2017
The two last women's singles matches on court are the two that will decide our opponents tomorrow, so hopefully those continue and produce exhausted opponents! In Arbuthnott's corner of the draw, 15th-seeded Mayar Sherif Ahmed of Pepperdine took the first set over #70 Marie Leduc of Clemson 6-4, but Leduc stormed back to take the second 6-1. Ahmed is serving, down a break at 2-4. And Gordon awaits the winner between 4th-seeded Shibahara of UCLA and #24 Bianca Turati of Texas, who just started their second set (Turati took the first in a tiebreaker after Shibahara was broken serving for the set, up 6-5).Â
Regardless of who Gordon's opponent ends up being, her quarter is by far the hardest remaining in the draw. She'll either play the #1 or the #24 player tomorrow, while the other Round of 16 match is between #2 Gabriela Talaba (Texas Tech) and #6 Kate Fahey (Michigan). Brutal.Â
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-02-2017
I'd like to add another reason I enjoy following the team: they always improve significantly over the course of the season. This of course reflects a combination of excellent coaching and hard work, both of which I approve of. :)
Their heart, determination, competitive spirit, whatever you want to call it -- I find that extremely inspiring. Davidson and Doyle, for example, were excellent college tennis players, but not on the level of, say, Nicole Gibbs or Carole Zhao. But they won far more than their share of matches because they simply would not give up or ease up, not for an instant, no matter how bad the score or how terrific their opponent was playing.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-02-2017
(11-02-2017, 12:53 PM)oldalum link Wrote:I'd like to add another reason I enjoy following the team: they always improve significantly over the course of the season. This of course reflects a combination of excellent coaching and hard work, both of which I approve of. :)
Their heart, determination, competitive spirit, whatever you want to call it -- I find that extremely inspiring. Davidson and Doyle, for example, were excellent college tennis players, but not on the level of, say, Nicole Gibbs or Carole Zhao. But they won far more than their share of matches because they simply would not give up or ease up, not for an instant, no matter how bad the score or how terrific their opponent was playing.
Absolutely. Davidson's senior year didn't go the way she wanted, but man alive, the grit she had.... There seemed to be an extra gear she could find come tournament time, which is another reason to like this team. Not only do they get better over the course of the season, but they seem to take an extra big step in the NCAA tournament. The stage is never too big for this team.Â
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-02-2017
And it'll be Gordon vs. #24 Bianca Turati of Texas, who upset UCLA's Shibahara 7-6(4), 6-2. Arbuthnott will get #70 Marie Leduc of Clemson, who upset Pepperdine's Sherif Ahmed, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. Arbuthnott (#69) and Leduc (#70) may be ranked nearby one another in January as well, but one suspects with much lower numbers next to their names.Â
Other interesting results today:
Julia O'Loughlin of Denver is having a charmed tournament. First off, she wasn't supposed to be here, but when Florida's Brooke Austin withdrew last minute, O'Loughlin (here for the doubles tournament only), was inserted. She struggled to beat a D-III opponent in the first round (the tournament has the winners from early-season D-II, D-III, and JUCO tournaments as well), but just knocked off 8th-ranked and 7th-seeded Sinead Lohan of Miami in three sets.Â
Five seeds went down today: #4 Shibahara (UCLA); #7 Lohan (Miami); #10 Anastasia Rychagova (Kansas); #15 Mayar Sherif Ahmed (Pepperdine); and, of course, in our favorite upset of the day, #6 Jokic (Georgia). In addition to the two that lost in the first round, that leaves the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 16th seeds in the field.Â
One early story of the tournament is that the top-ranked freshmen here are showing they belong. Veronica Miroshnichenko is the #10 freshman in the rankings, and she's beaten two ranked players so far, including #17 Arianne Hartono of Ole Miss (who in turn beat #5 Karla Popovic of Cal). Alle Sanford of UNC is the #6 freshman, and she rolled right over Cal's Olivia Hauger today (who was the last Cal player remaining in the main draw, so that's nice). Kelly Chen (the #4) pushed Gordon hard, and won her consolation match today in solid fashion.Â
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-02-2017
(11-02-2017, 01:45 PM)ColoradoTree link Wrote: Davidson's senior year didn't go the way she wanted, but man alive, the grit she had.... .I remember another coach, maybe Florida's, saying in an interview once that Davidson was the toughest college player he had ever seen.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-02-2017
Arbuthnott/Davidson pulled through, but didnt make it easy on themselves! They won the first set 7-5 and were up 3-0 in the second, but only won one more game that set as UCLAs Hart/Andrews turned it on and won that set 6-4, forcing a supertiebreak. Our duo was down 8-6 in that but ended up pulling it out 11-9 to advance!
Hart/Andrews arent ranked right now, but Hart and Ena Shibahara are the #4 ranked doubles team in the country. Hart actually qualified twice for this tournament, once with Shibahara and once playing with Andrews, so by opting for this team here, UCLA is indicating that this is UCLAs top duo this spring. So, Arbuthnott/Gordon basically beat the #4 doubles team in the country, which aint too shabby!
Next up in the quarterfinals tomorrow is the 5th seeded pair of Kelley/Johanson from UVA, who beat an unseeded (but 9th-ranked) pair from Arkansas, also 11-9 in a supertiebreak, so both teams were pushed to the edge.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - TheFarm07 - 11-03-2017
Thank you ColoradoTree for all of the women's tennis updates! It sounds like we will have another formidable lineup this year and can make another run for the title.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-03-2017
Arbuthnott got drilled, but Gordon is into a second-set tiebreaker after losing the first set 6-2.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-03-2017
Gordon learned a hard lesson today about her ability to close out matches against tough opponents. She had 2 set points up 5-2 in the second but was broken. She had another 2 set points up 5-4 but was broken again. She had set points up 6-5, and then again in the tiebreaker, but again could not close the door.
A frustrating loss, because Gordon has all the talent necessary to have beaten Turati.
But that said, this is the perfect time to take a disappointing loss like this. It doesnt hurt the team, and its not in the most important individual tournamentthe NCAAsso if she improves her ability to close out games as a result of this loss, then its a good result on balance.
Turati must have been a really difficult matchup, too. Gordon didnt hold serve until the middle of the second set, even though she was getting first serves in at a pretty good clip. No shame at all in losing to a good player like that, but the way in which Gordon lost will (rightfully) leave a bad taste in her mouth. And thats all to the good, provided she learns from it.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-03-2017
Turati beat Davidson in straight sets at #1 singles last year in our dual meet vs. Texas--so she is no slouch of a player. She just won quarterfinal match as well and is through to the semifinals. It is actually encouraging that Gordon was so competitive in their match.
Arbuthnott's vanquisher, LeDuc, is losing to Vandy's Contreras--which shows again how much Contreras has improved since Lampl beat her last year.
Gordon/Arbuthnott doubles match starts at 3:30 against a Virginia team that, like us, also won its previous match 11-9 in the super tiebreaker.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - Lorcan - 11-03-2017
They lead 4-3 on serve in the super breaker after splitting the first two sets.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-03-2017
What a great win! Another nailbiter, as they have to win a second set tiebreaker just to GET to the supertiebreak. From not even being in the main draw to getting in as an alternate to making the semis? Not too shabby, Id say.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-04-2017
our dynamic duo (Arbuthnott/Gordon) play at 1:30 pm today vs. a Duke team that includes Kelly Chen, who will no doubt be looking to get some revenge on Gordon for their singles match.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-04-2017
looks like our players are going to have their hands full. We know Kelly Chen is good; her partner (Harris) beat Turati in singles this morning and is on to the singles final. That is a high-powered duo; would be great to take em down!
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-04-2017
And the Cardinal win! 6-1, 7-5. On to the finals!
May be hard for Lele to break up this duo.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-05-2017
Arbuthnott/Gordon raced to a 5-2 lead in the first set, but couldnt serve it out. They had another chance to win the set on their serve, up 5-4, and they took advantage of that second opportunity!
First set in the books, 6-4! One more for the title!
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-05-2017
A quick double break to start the second and its 4-0 Cardinal! Just eight more points!
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-05-2017
Another break and its a comprehensive 6-4, 6-1 win over the #6 doubles team in the country. No big deal for these two. When the stage was its biggest and their opponents as good as theyve faced, they raised their level.
A national title in their second tournament playing together? My goodness. And oldalum, Im pretty sure Lele isnt going to try and fix something that obviously aint broke, as long as some sort of chemistry starts to develop with our other pairs. (This is the kind of lightning in a bottle you pray for when trying new doubles pairings. At this point, its sure looking like Arbuthnott/Gordon at 1, Lampl/Lord at 2, and Higuchi/Shin at 3.)
What a run this was. A win over the #38 duo in the first round. A win over a likely Top 5 team in the second. Beat the 5th seed in the quarters, the 3rd seed in the semis, and the #6 team in the finals.
With the fall season, youre hoping to get a sense of your team, and whether you have something special there. After this fall, and especially the performances of Emily Arbuthnott and Michaela Gordon, its pretty darn clear that we do.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - oldalum - 11-05-2017
Our doubles is looking more encouraging this year, after a couple of uncharacteristic down years in which we usually lost the doubles point to good teams. I seem to remember from last year that Lampl was working on becoming a better doubles player with better net play; if she raises her doubles game, we are going to have two very formidable doubles teams.
Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. IV: ITA Fall National Championship - ColoradoTree - 11-05-2017
We dont get to see and hear much of the team, outside of live streaming, so this interview, while not expertly conducted, is a nice change of pace: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rm9wrzgck4&ebc=ANyPxKqY6WlTwvuj-w2P5P9VukOevZ91cLOn3QXfUDJmQMOsptMDe0Vfn3uCU6UfzQ0gqAIDET512WxuKDUaZHB55TyTsFA8Cg
Its from yesterday, so after the semis and looking ahead to todays match. (The Stanford portion starts around the 5:18 mark.)
Ill post the post match interview today when we have one!