[ColoradoTree]

ColoradoTree, any insight into UF's Brooke Austin? Austin is a junior who played exclusively at #1 singles for the Gators her first two years. She was dominant, too, going 33-6 over that time with All-American and SEC POY honors in 2016. She was ranked #4 in the nation when Carol Zhao beat her 6-4, 6-4 in the Round of 16 last as part of Stanford's 4-3 "upset." By any definition, she was one of the nation's top players.

This season, however, she's not ranked at all and has primarily has occupied one of the back courts for the Gators. As you note, she beat Lampl at #4 in February and looks likely to play at #5 today. She doesn't appear to be injured because she's played the whole season, unless it's just been some sort of long-term nagging injury that caused the Florida coaches to drop her several spots. I tried to research what may have happened online but came up with nothing. Just seems very odd to me.

You know, that's a great question.  I don't follow other schools closely enough to see how Austin's star could have fallen so far, but from a quick look at the Florida schedule, it looks like she didn't play in the fall season, so she may have had an injury. Woolcock played #2 much of last year, so her rise to #1 makes sense.  Neel is a freshman this year, and has played really well, so I can see her vaulting an idle Austin.  But it seems strange that her level would have dropped to the point where she's struggling to beat players like Lampl.  (That said, if she missed the fall season and has played much of the season at #5, it's not at all surprising that she'd fail to climb up the rankings, as she wouldn't be facing many ranked opponents at #5 and thus wouldn't get the kind of quality wins that would get you climbing higher.)  One possibility is that the Florida team is so deep and even that there's a lot of internal competition, which might explain the periodic roster shuffling that they do.  If they have 5 players that are Top 50 caliber, then even a temporary dip in form or injury could drop someone a few slots.  Heck, Keegan played #3 for most of last year and was ranked in the Top 30.  But she has alternated this year between playing #6 or not playing at all, so it's fair to say that the Florida lineup is volatile. 

But Austin is a question mark, it's true.  Who shows up this evening?  The top 10 player from last year and the year before?  Or the diminished player from this year?  I hear you, oldalum, and some pessimism is fair.  I don't know why her level has dropped this year, but I'll assume that who she's been this year is who she'll be this evening.  If that's true, then Arbuthnott has a good chance to win that one.  (The scenario where she recaptures last year's form this evening isn't very fun to envision, so I don't want to do it!)

Davidson's form was also a question mark earlier this year, and even when she had recovered from illness, Lele put her back in the lineup at #3 instead of putting her back at #1, pushing Doyle and Lord each up a spot.  I figured that was a temporary thing to allow her to get back into form after being sick, but then she stayed there.  Heck, I assumed Taylor would start crushing people at #3, but that didn't happen.

[ColoradoTree]

ColoradoTree, any insight into UF's Brooke Austin? Austin is a junior who played exclusively at #1 singles for the Gators her first two years. She was dominant, too, going 33-6 over that time with All-American and SEC POY honors in 2016. She was ranked #4 in the nation when Carol Zhao beat her 6-4, 6-4 in the Round of 16 last as part of Stanford's 4-3 "upset." By any definition, she was one of the nation's top players.

This season, however, she's not ranked at all and has primarily has occupied one of the back courts for the Gators. As you note, she beat Lampl at #4 in February and looks likely to play at #5 today. She doesn't appear to be injured because she's played the whole season, unless it's just been some sort of long-term nagging injury that caused the Florida coaches to drop her several spots. I tried to research what may have happened online but came up with nothing. Just seems very odd to me.

You know, that's a great question.  I don't follow other schools closely enough to see how Austin's star could have fallen so far, but from a quick look at the Florida schedule, it looks like she didn't play in the fall season, so she may have had an injury. Woolcock played #2 much of last year, so her rise to #1 makes sense.  Neel is a freshman this year, and has played really well, so I can see her vaulting an idle Austin.  But it seems strange that her level would have dropped to the point where she's struggling to beat players like Lampl.  (That said, if she missed the fall season and has played much of the season at #5, it's not at all surprising that she'd fail to climb up the rankings, as she wouldn't be facing many ranked opponents at #5 and thus wouldn't get the kind of quality wins that would get you climbing higher.)  One possibility is that the Florida team is so deep and even that there's a lot of internal competition, which might explain the periodic roster shuffling that they do.  If they have 5 players that are Top 50 caliber, then even a temporary dip in form or injury could drop someone a few slots.  Heck, Keegan played #3 for most of last year and was ranked in the Top 30.  But she has alternated this year between playing #6 or not playing at all, so it's fair to say that the Florida lineup is volatile. 

But Austin is a question mark, it's true.  Who shows up this evening?  The top 10 player from last year and the year before?  Or the diminished player from this year?  I hear you, oldalum, and some pessimism is fair.  I don't know why her level has dropped this year, but I'll assume that who she's been this year is who she'll be this evening.  If that's true, then Arbuthnott has a good chance to win that one.  (The scenario where she recaptures last year's form this evening isn't very fun to envision, so I don't want to do it!)

Davidson's form was also a question mark earlier this year, and even when she had recovered from illness, Lele put her back in the lineup at #3 instead of putting her back at #1, pushing Doyle and Lord each up a spot.  I figured that was a temporary thing to allow her to get back into form after being sick, but then she stayed there.  Heck, I assumed Taylor would start crushing people at #3, but that didn't happen.