[ColoradoTree]

I've only watched her for a few points here and there. So can someone tell me why Shin's matches take so long? Or does it just appear that way to me?

She's a grinder, much like Arbuthnott (man alive, some of her matches last year took *forever*). Powerful ground strokes, and appears to have a sense that she'll outlast the person in front of her, so she appears content to keep play alive rather than take some risks to end the point early. That's not to say she just hits it back and doesn't use angles to put her opponent in a tough position--she absolutely does that--but it's a matter of degree compared to other players in the lineup.

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What a match.  I was without reception in the mountains for much of it, so I'd quickly check Twitter and the video feed when I had a stray signal, but it was fleeting enough that I couldn't get on here and comment with you fine folks.

Takeaways:

* Losing the doubles point to UCLA is not ideal, but they are really good at doubles, so it's not like it's an upset for that to happen. If you had to draw up "how we beat UCLA" beforehand, you'd be smart to just assume the doubles point is lost and focus on getting four wins in singles. (Though being up 6-5 on serve at #1 and losing in a tiebreak hurt, to be sure.)
* Needing four points from singles, we won just three first sets, and things looked a little daunting.  But after two of those first set wins turned into points on the scoreboard (Lord over #30 Jada Hart and then Higuchi over Alaina Miller), we got angry second sets from both Lampl and Arbuthnott, both by a 6-1 score. Nothing better to regain momentum after dropping a first set than to flush it and come out swinging, but there's a reason it doesn't usually happen, and because it's very hard to just flip a switch and start bludgeoning someone who just got the best of you. Things tightened up for Lampl, but she pulled it out, and then Arbuthnott kept on the gas against #59 Abi Altick (who has been ranked as high as the 30s this year, if I recall correctly) and won the third set 6-1 to clinch. And if we needed it, we had a safety valve on Court 5, where Shin was hopefully about to break Ayan Broomfield's heart (Broomfield finished last season as a top 50 player before transferring from Clemson, so a close match was to be expected). 
* Gordon losing to Shibahara is a bummer, but it pays to remember that Shibahara was the preseason #1 player in the country, and is still in the top 20. And Gordon has now split her two matches with her this year, which is super good.  And the way the singles rankings work, when you beat a good player, you get a bump, and if you lose to a good player, you don't drop by much.  Because they've now beaten each other, they're somewhat symbiotically tied together in the rankings. 
* We needed to see Melissa Lord in top form, and we did. Hart is a terrific player, and Lord came out on fire before holding on. That's an excellent sign heading into the NCAA tournament.  
* UCLA is a top 10-caliber team (8th in the USTA rankings, 13th in the controlling ITA rankings). Beating them should be hard. Coming into the match, I would have given UCLA a slight edge at doubles, and then I would have rated the singles matches as follows: #1 - coin flip; #2 - slight lean to Lord, but unsure about form; #3 - ever so slight lean to Lampl; #4 - lean to Altick; #5 - perhaps slight lean to Broomfield based on experience; #6 - Higuchi. We could have won 4-1 after doubles and I wouldn't have been shocked.  We could have lost 4-1 with Higuchi as our lone win and I wouldn't have been shocked. 
* Before the season, I was very nervous about UCLA, given that they added Altick and Broomfield and didn't lose anyone to graduation, so a talented-but-underperforming lineup from last year should be even more dangerous this year. And they were. I picked Stanford to narrowly edge them out, but you guys, a big part of that was loyalty. UCLA terrified me this season, and when we lost the doubles point to them back in March, I assumed that we were done, especially with Lord out.  That win, highlighted by Gordon beating Shibahara and Lampl handling Hart in a surprisingly strong performance, was when I started to think they'd be OK once Lord came back.

[ColoradoTree]

I've only watched her for a few points here and there. So can someone tell me why Shin's matches take so long? Or does it just appear that way to me?

She's a grinder, much like Arbuthnott (man alive, some of her matches last year took *forever*). Powerful ground strokes, and appears to have a sense that she'll outlast the person in front of her, so she appears content to keep play alive rather than take some risks to end the point early. That's not to say she just hits it back and doesn't use angles to put her opponent in a tough position--she absolutely does that--but it's a matter of degree compared to other players in the lineup.

---

What a match.  I was without reception in the mountains for much of it, so I'd quickly check Twitter and the video feed when I had a stray signal, but it was fleeting enough that I couldn't get on here and comment with you fine folks.

Takeaways:

* Losing the doubles point to UCLA is not ideal, but they are really good at doubles, so it's not like it's an upset for that to happen. If you had to draw up "how we beat UCLA" beforehand, you'd be smart to just assume the doubles point is lost and focus on getting four wins in singles. (Though being up 6-5 on serve at #1 and losing in a tiebreak hurt, to be sure.)
* Needing four points from singles, we won just three first sets, and things looked a little daunting.  But after two of those first set wins turned into points on the scoreboard (Lord over #30 Jada Hart and then Higuchi over Alaina Miller), we got angry second sets from both Lampl and Arbuthnott, both by a 6-1 score. Nothing better to regain momentum after dropping a first set than to flush it and come out swinging, but there's a reason it doesn't usually happen, and because it's very hard to just flip a switch and start bludgeoning someone who just got the best of you. Things tightened up for Lampl, but she pulled it out, and then Arbuthnott kept on the gas against #59 Abi Altick (who has been ranked as high as the 30s this year, if I recall correctly) and won the third set 6-1 to clinch. And if we needed it, we had a safety valve on Court 5, where Shin was hopefully about to break Ayan Broomfield's heart (Broomfield finished last season as a top 50 player before transferring from Clemson, so a close match was to be expected). 
* Gordon losing to Shibahara is a bummer, but it pays to remember that Shibahara was the preseason #1 player in the country, and is still in the top 20. And Gordon has now split her two matches with her this year, which is super good.  And the way the singles rankings work, when you beat a good player, you get a bump, and if you lose to a good player, you don't drop by much.  Because they've now beaten each other, they're somewhat symbiotically tied together in the rankings. 
* We needed to see Melissa Lord in top form, and we did. Hart is a terrific player, and Lord came out on fire before holding on. That's an excellent sign heading into the NCAA tournament.  
* UCLA is a top 10-caliber team (8th in the USTA rankings, 13th in the controlling ITA rankings). Beating them should be hard. Coming into the match, I would have given UCLA a slight edge at doubles, and then I would have rated the singles matches as follows: #1 - coin flip; #2 - slight lean to Lord, but unsure about form; #3 - ever so slight lean to Lampl; #4 - lean to Altick; #5 - perhaps slight lean to Broomfield based on experience; #6 - Higuchi. We could have won 4-1 after doubles and I wouldn't have been shocked.  We could have lost 4-1 with Higuchi as our lone win and I wouldn't have been shocked. 
* Before the season, I was very nervous about UCLA, given that they added Altick and Broomfield and didn't lose anyone to graduation, so a talented-but-underperforming lineup from last year should be even more dangerous this year. And they were. I picked Stanford to narrowly edge them out, but you guys, a big part of that was loyalty. UCLA terrified me this season, and when we lost the doubles point to them back in March, I assumed that we were done, especially with Lord out.  That win, highlighted by Gordon beating Shibahara and Lampl handling Hart in a surprisingly strong performance, was when I started to think they'd be OK once Lord came back.