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Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - Printable Version

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Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - ColoradoTree - 10-02-2017

We still don't have a full schedule posted on the Stanford athletics website yet, but folks, there is still Stanford tennis being played tomorrow!  It's the fall season, so it doesn't matter a whit for the team rankings that will impact NCAA seeding at the end of the spring, but it's still tennis!

(FYI, Volume I of the season preview, looking at roster turnover and preseason rankings, is here: http://thecardboard.org/board/index.php?topic=17444.0)

EDIT: A partial 2017-2018 schedule has been released, showing mostly just the fall season, so I added the paragraph on the new ITA Fall Championships below.

I.  Wait, I thought tennis was a spring sport?

Stanford doesn't officially compete as a team in the fall, but there are a number of individual tournaments held in the fall that do have an impact on individual rankings, which are used to determine who qualifies for the NCAA singles/doubles tournaments in the spring.  So they matter. But aside from that impact on individual rankings, they are important for other reasons:  (1) they will help determine what our lineup looks like for the spring; (2) they'll show Lele what she has in her new freshmen; (3) they'll give a sense of how far Kimberly Yee has progressed, and whether the former blue-chip recruit has developed to the point where she's ready to hold down a singles spot regularly, or if she'll get vaulted by both freshmen (like Higuchi and Arbuthnott did last year); and (4) they'll give us a sense of how our players stack up against the best in the country before the matches start counting. 

Up first is the ITA All-American Championships.  Last year, Lele sent Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle to play singles, who we believed were our two best players on the team at the time.  The year before, Lele sent Davidson, Doyle, and Krista Hardebeck, our top three.  Basically, the players that Lele sends to that tournament will be the ones at the top of our lineup come spring.  This year, Melissa Lord headlines the group heading to Pacific Palisades, with Emily Arbuthnott, Emma Higuchi, and Caroline Lampl seeking to join her in the singles main draw.  Stanford's lone doubles entrant will be the team of Arbuthnott and freshman Janice Shin, which will need three wins to qualify for the main draw. 

Following right on the heels is the St. Mary's Invitational this weekend.  Last year, we sent Carolina Lampl and Emma Higuchi in the A division, and two walk-ons, Naomie Rosenberg and Elizabeth Yao in the B division; Higuchi lost in the championship match.  Lampl ended up playing #4 and Higuchi #6 for Stanford in the spring, so the players sent to the A division here are likely to be in our singles lineup.  We don't yet know yet who will be going--Stanford hasn't announced that info.  But with Arbuthnott, Higuchi, Lampl, and Lord all going to ITAs, I would think Kimberly Yee and Michaela Gordon would go to St. Mary's, and perhaps Janice Shin as well, so she can get some more singles matches this fall. 

Next up are the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, which Stanford looks to host this year from October 19-23.  This is a 128-player singles field, and basically our entire roster will be in the main draw, along with players from ןɐɔ, Oregon, UW, Wazzu, and a number of smaller schools.  Last year, continuing her impressive fall, Higuchi lost in the championship match, which proved to be a harbinger of good things to come, as she was extremely dependable at the #6 singles spot last spring. 

Now, that's sometimes the end of it, as Stanford historically plays a light fall schedule compared to other top programs.  But this year, there should be at least one player competing in the newly-created ITA Fall Championships, which are held from November 1-5 in Indian Wells, CA.  Based on the qualifying criteria (which are delightfully complicated, and include, for singles, reaching the QFs at the ITA All-Americans or the finals at the various ITA regional championships, in addition to a bunch of at-large selections based on rankings), Melissa Lord is likely to be selected, though she needs a win or two under her belt to qualify.  Even the at-large selections require players to have at least reached the Round of 16 at the ITA All-Americans or a quarterfinal at a regional championship, so a win today would effectively guarantee Lord a spot.

Others could join her in the 64-player singles draw or the 32-team doubles draw, but it would need to be based on results, as their preseason rankings generally aren't high enough in singles, and the doubles teams need to win the regional final to be guaranteed a spot, and need to make the final to even be on the bubble for the at-large selections.  (Higuchi could be close on rankings, if a bunch of the players ahead of her in the rankings make the QFs at All-Americans and/or make the finals at their respective regional championships, and if Higuchi herself makes at least a QF at the Northwest Regionals to make her eligible for an at-large selection.  Had this tournament existed last year, Higuchi's run to the finals at last year's Northwest Regionals would have garnered her a spot, while Taylor Davidson's #22 preseason ranking should have been enough to get her into it.) 

II.  So there's tennis tomorrow?

There is!  The ITA All-American Championships is as good of a tournament as we'll get until the NCAAs, with nary an easy match to be found.  The singles qualifying draw gets started tomorrow and finishes on Wednesday, with main draw play to start on Thursday.  The main draw hasn't been released yet, so while we know Melissa Lord is in the field due to her preseason No. 7 ranking, we don't know who she'll play on Thursday.  We do know the qualifying matchups, however:

Doubles wave (9:00 a.m.)

* No. 31 Arbuthnott/Shin vs. Anna Sanford/Olivia Sneed (Ohio State).  The OSU duo is unranked, but Sanford played #2 singles for the Buckeyes team that pushed Stanford to the brink in the NCAA semifinals last spring.  A dangerous match.  Just one doubles match on Tuesday, but there will be two on Wednesday if Arbuthnott/Shin hope to advance to the main draw, with a potential matchup against No. 20 Broomfield/Andrews from UCLA. 

First singles wave (10:45 a.m.)

* No. 69 Emily Arbuthnott vs. No. 64 Ryann Foster (LSU).  If Emily wins, she'll play again at 2:15 against the winner of the match between No. 39 Petra Granic (Texas) and No. 65 Makenna Jones (UNC).  If she wins that, she'll need to win one more match on Wednesday to make the main draw. 

* No. 44 Emma Higuchi vs. No. 105 Marta Gonzalez (Georgia).  If Emma wins, she'll play again at 2:15 against the winner of the match between No. 40 Erin Larner (Northwestern) and Sabina Machalova (Ole Miss, unranked).  Then one more on Wednesday. 

Second singles wave (12:30 p.m.):

12:30 p.m.: No. 51 Caroline Lampl vs. No. 32 Natalie Suk (Ole Miss).  If Caroline wins, she'll play again at 4:00 against the winner of the match between No. 45 Lindsay Hodge (Rice) and No. 63 Fernanda Contreras (Vanderbilt).  And one more on Wednesday. 

No video, but live scoring is supposed to be available at this website when matches start: http://www.itatennis.com/Events/ITANationalChampionships/WomensAllAmerican.htm



Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - oldalum - 10-02-2017

thanks so much for the great info!

Are scholarships in tennis tied to the player, or is 8 the limit to the number of players they can be used for, or can they be divided up among multiple players like they do in soccer? I.e., can we use our remaining scholarship to help recruit 2 players, and could we actually have more $ than 1 scholarship available for next year?

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - BobK - 10-02-2017

Women's Tennis is one of the 6 Full
Scholarship sports.  Like WBB my friend. 😀

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - ColoradoTree - 10-03-2017

(10-02-2017, 07:36 PM)BobK link Wrote:Women's Tennis is one of the 6 Full
Scholarship sports.  Like WBB my friend. 😀

Yep.  To use the NCAA's parlance, women's tennis is a so-called "head count" sport, where the number of scholarships equals the head count of student-athletes on scholarship. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - oldalum - 10-03-2017

(10-02-2017, 07:36 PM)BobK link Wrote:Women's Tennis is one of the 6 Full
Scholarship sports.  Like WBB my friend. 😀

Does this list of head count/full scholarship sports look right to you? (I plucked it off the internet)

Men’s Sports
Football  (85 scholarships)
Basketball (13 scholarships)

Women’s Sports
Basketball (15 scholarships)
Tennis (8 scholarships)
Gymnastics (12 scholarships)
Volleyball (12 scholarships)

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - Hurlburt88 - 10-03-2017

Men’s tennis, baseball, and volleyball?

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - BobK - 10-03-2017

All partial sports 88

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - ColoradoTree - 10-04-2017

Not a terribly successful day for our players trying to join Melissa Lord in the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships, but each player notched a win against a good opponent, so there are positive takeaways. 

* Higuchi lost her first match to No. 105 Marta Gonzalez (UGA) 6-4, 6-4 (Gonzalez beat some higher-ranked players in pre-qualifying, so she may not be appropriately ranked).  She rebounded to beat No. 40 Erin Lerner (NW) in the consolation bracket, 6-1, 7-6 (4), so she gets to play today against Rice's Michaela Haet. 

* Lampl absolutely rolled over No. 32 Natalie Suk (Ole Miss) 6-0, 6-3, before falling to No. 63 Fernanda Contreras (Vanderbilt) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

* Arbuthnott won a hard three-setter against comparably ranked Ryann Foster of LSU, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, before losing another three-setter to UNC's Makenna Jones, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. 

* On the doubles front, Arbuthnott and incoming freshman Janice Shin were our only team in the qualifying draw, and they withdrew prior to the match because of injury.  Since Arbuthnott played two singles matches later that day, Shin would be the injured party, and there's no information on what it is. 

Thus, the tournament is over for Lampl, Arbuthnott, and Shin.  Higuchi will continue in the qualifying consolation bracket, with the opportunity to improve her ranking with some more matches against good opponents.  Melissa Lord's tournament kicks off tomorrow, though the draw hasn't been determined yet.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - BobK - 10-04-2017

Really appreciate the updates.  Thanks

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - oldalum - 10-04-2017

Lampl-Contreras was a rematch of their NCAA semifinal meeting 2 years ago, in which Lampl came from behind in the third set to clinch the match 4-3 to send us to the finals and the national championship. Contrasting styles so an interesting matchup. Vanderbilt is not on our non-conference schedule this year so any third meeting would have to be in a tournament.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - ColoradoTree - 10-05-2017

Higuchi keeps going in the consolation draw, beating Rice's Michaela Haet yesterday in an up-and-down three-setter, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.  Up next today is LSU's Ryann Foster, who is in the consolation draw in the first place thanks to losing to Arbuthnott in the first round.  If Emma wins, a likely matchup with No. 33 Anna Sanford of Ohio State awaits in the qualifying consolation semifinal.  (Like I said, no easy matches in the tournament.  Yes, it's a consolation draw, and yes, it's a qualifying consolation draw, but you still have to play Top 50 players to advance.)

The main draw gets started today as well, so we'll get our first glimpse of Melissa Lord this season.  Seeded sixth, she gets started at 11:45 am against USC's Gabby Smith, who is the preseason No. 14 player in the country, so no easy draw for Melissa.  Smith should play #1 for USC, so they'll see each other again come spring.  Should Melissa win, she'd play another Top 20 opponent tomorrow. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - ColoradoTree - 10-05-2017

Unfortunately, Lord didn't get that win today, as she fell to U$C's Smith 6-3, 6-4.  That makes qualifying for the Fall Championships more complicated, as she now has to make the quarterfinals at the Northwest Regionals, which means 4 wins.  She might be the top overall seed, so it's certainly expected that she would do at least that well, but one never knows.  Lord made the QFs last year, and she wasn't tested in the first three rounds.  In the Round of 16, however, she needed three tough sets to get through Oregon's Nia Rose.  Depending on how the draw turns out, she might be looking at a tougher path than she faced last year.

It looks like the tournament powers-that-be decided to bag the rest of the qualifying singles consolation tournament, since no one else seems to be playing today.  So that's it for Emma Higuchi's tournament, too.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - ColoradoTree - 10-06-2017

Lord may no longer be in the main draw, but she still has another chance for a Top 10 win, playing No. 10 Elena Christofi (UGA) in the first round of the consolation draw at 12:30pm today. 

As for the next tournament, the Stanford website and schedule still says that Stanford is sending a "split-squad contingent" to the St. Mary's Fall Invitational today (http://www.gostanford.com/news/2017/9/28/womens-tennis-fall-season-underway.aspx), but there's no tournament-specific preview article up on the website.  Since the tournament is starting today, I checked the draws on the tournament's official website, and I searched in vain for a Stanford player in any of the singles or doubles draws.  No idea as to why the schedule was apparently changed, but in any event, it looks like the next tournament will be the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, held at Stanford in two weeks' time. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. II: Fall Season Kickoff - oldalum - 10-08-2017

Melissa beat the #10 Georgia player and then the #34 player from UVA before falling to the #35 player from Kansas. So she went 2-2 for the tournament.

Lampl's 3-set loss to Contreras looks more encouraging now that Contreras won 8 straight matches en route to winning the singles championship! Vanderbilt had a superb showing at this tournament in both doubles and singles.