05-12-2018, 07:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-15-2018, 08:41 AM by ColoradoTree.)
Once that doubles tiebreaker went our way, I figured we’d be in great shape, but I didn’t think that great a shape.
* Higuchi at 6 just isn’t fair. So few teams in the country have our depth. (Of course, we’ll play one of them in the next round.)
* Guess we figured out which Lord would show up, eh? I’ve been waiting all season to see her play at that level. Not her fault we haven’t—after all, she missed all but the last month of the regular season with injury—but we’re finally seeing the player who was the preseason #7 player in the country. Minor is good, too, and Lord just blew her off the court. When Lord is at her best, she can beat anyone in the country.
* 4-0 looks like a blowout, but those of you that followed this one know the score line is misleading. But heck, we just blanked the #17 team in the country, and the three matches that got finished weren’t close. (Still amped from that doubles point, tbh.) 4 first sets when we just needed three wins, and we were on our way to forcing one of Michigan’s two first set wins into a third. (I know it was tied 4-4, but that match had “Arbuthnott comeback classic” written all over it.) We had that one reasonably well in hand throughout the singles.
* Shin at 5 was just terrific. Clinching a NCAA win is quite the thing, and being able to finish that off should be a nice boost of confidence going forward.
* Good fight from Lampl at 3, down a break early, but fighting to get it to a tiebreaker and then pulling it out. She was on serve in her second set when the match was abandoned, but if we’d needed that one, I feel like Caroline would have gotten us home.
* Arbuthnott struggled somewhat today, but it felt like she’d righted the ship in the second.
* The only blemish on the day was Gordon having set points up 5-4 on her serve and then losing 8 straight games—8!—before holding to stave off Fahey’s win and allow Shin to close out her match and preserve the shutout. That is a worrying lapse in form, and she’s had some trouble finishing off sets and matches this year. She avoids taking a loss today, so hopefully it’s a wake up call. (It doesn't count for ITA ranking purposes, that is. But for UTR purposes, in case you're curious, the match does count, because it counts matches where at least four games have been played, so it should cause Gordon's rating to dip a little. The UTR system sees that Gordon won 6 games and lost 12, and it's the percentage of games won that matters, so it counts it the same as if Gordon had actually lost 6-3, 6-3.)
The road only gets tougher from here, folks. We play top-ranked—but 2nd-seeded—UNC in the Round of 16 at Wake Forest on Thursday at noon, in what might as well be a road match. A rough draw, but we’d have to beat them anyway, so we might as well do it Thursday.
* Higuchi at 6 just isn’t fair. So few teams in the country have our depth. (Of course, we’ll play one of them in the next round.)
* Guess we figured out which Lord would show up, eh? I’ve been waiting all season to see her play at that level. Not her fault we haven’t—after all, she missed all but the last month of the regular season with injury—but we’re finally seeing the player who was the preseason #7 player in the country. Minor is good, too, and Lord just blew her off the court. When Lord is at her best, she can beat anyone in the country.
* 4-0 looks like a blowout, but those of you that followed this one know the score line is misleading. But heck, we just blanked the #17 team in the country, and the three matches that got finished weren’t close. (Still amped from that doubles point, tbh.) 4 first sets when we just needed three wins, and we were on our way to forcing one of Michigan’s two first set wins into a third. (I know it was tied 4-4, but that match had “Arbuthnott comeback classic” written all over it.) We had that one reasonably well in hand throughout the singles.
* Shin at 5 was just terrific. Clinching a NCAA win is quite the thing, and being able to finish that off should be a nice boost of confidence going forward.
* Good fight from Lampl at 3, down a break early, but fighting to get it to a tiebreaker and then pulling it out. She was on serve in her second set when the match was abandoned, but if we’d needed that one, I feel like Caroline would have gotten us home.
* Arbuthnott struggled somewhat today, but it felt like she’d righted the ship in the second.
* The only blemish on the day was Gordon having set points up 5-4 on her serve and then losing 8 straight games—8!—before holding to stave off Fahey’s win and allow Shin to close out her match and preserve the shutout. That is a worrying lapse in form, and she’s had some trouble finishing off sets and matches this year. She avoids taking a loss today, so hopefully it’s a wake up call. (It doesn't count for ITA ranking purposes, that is. But for UTR purposes, in case you're curious, the match does count, because it counts matches where at least four games have been played, so it should cause Gordon's rating to dip a little. The UTR system sees that Gordon won 6 games and lost 12, and it's the percentage of games won that matters, so it counts it the same as if Gordon had actually lost 6-3, 6-3.)
The road only gets tougher from here, folks. We play top-ranked—but 2nd-seeded—UNC in the Round of 16 at Wake Forest on Thursday at noon, in what might as well be a road match. A rough draw, but we’d have to beat them anyway, so we might as well do it Thursday.