10-17-2019, 12:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-17-2019, 12:13 PM by ColoradoTree.)
Starting tomorrow, the ITA Northwest Regionals will be contested at Taube on campus, welcoming Pac-12 rivals Cal, Oregon, Washington, and Washington State, as well as a number of other schools from Fresno to Seattle. The singles finalists will earn berths at the ITA Fall Nationals in November, as do the doubles champions.
Logistics:
* The draws are up, and you can find them (and track results) here: https://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/...&s=7Draws3
* Since the tournament is at Stanford, live video/scoring will be available for the Taube courts (but not the Taube South courts) here: http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/?DB_OEM_ID=30600
The draws:
Here are the seeds in singles, with ITA preseason ranking in parentheses:
(1) Michaela Gordon (#6)
(2) Julia Rosenqvist (Cal, #24)
(3) Emily Arbuthnott (#30)
(4) Haley Giavara (Cal) -- this is a bit of a surprise (I figured she'd be a 9), but this is a sign that the coaches think Giavara is Cal's #2 over Anna Bright
(5) Valentina Ivanov (Cal) -- another surprise; watch this space, as this cohort of Cal freshmen looks to make Cal a much more dangerous team than I would have expected coming into the year.
(6) Anna Bright (Cal, #42) -- not surprising that she's a top 8 seed, but absolutely shocking that she's the fourth Cal player seeded
(7) Vanessa Wong (UW, #54)
(8) Janice Shin (#60)
(9) Angelica Blake (#8 newcomer)
(9) Sara Choy (#87)
(9) Niluka Madurawe (#93)
(9) Klara Kosan (UOP)
(9) Erin Richardson (Cal, #10 newcomer)
(9) Natsuho Arakawa (UW)
(9) Mariia Kozyreva (St. Mary's, #68)
(9) Maddie Pothoff (Santa Clara, #76)
And here are the seeds in doubles:
(1) Rosenqvist/Ivanov (Cal)
(2) Arbuthnott/Blake
(3) Gordon/Shin
(4) Bright/Giavara (Cal)
(5) Arakawa/Wong (UW)
(5) Gevargiz/Pothoff (Santa Clara)
(5) Kozyreva/McIntyre (St. Mary's)
(5) Dunk/Richardson (Cal)
The top 4 seeds have a bye into Saturday morning's second round. Choy/Madurawe are unseeded.
Schedule
Play starts tomorrow, with some doubles starting at around 8:30am, with singles following at 10:00am. Here's what tomorrow's schedule looks like:
9:15am: Choy/Madurawe vs. Ellis/Hummel (Fresno State)
10:00am: (1) Gordon vs. Nikita Pradeep (UC Davis)
11:30am: (9) Blake vs. Allison Mulville (Oregon)
12:30pm: (9) Choy vs. Chiho Mushika (USF)
1:00pm: Taylor Lallas (the lone walk-on on our team) vs. Nina Nikitovic (Portland State)
2:00pm: (3) Arbuthnott vs. Jane Ellis (Fresno State)
3:00pm: (8) Shin vs. Ella Husrefovic (Fresno State)
3:00pm: (9) Madurawe vs. Jamie Schroer (Santa Clara)
Second round singles matches will start on a rolling basis, with the first set of matches starting at 3:30 and the last set starting at 6:30.
Quick Analysis
* This is on campus, so head on down to Taube if you're free at all this weekend, particularly from Saturday afternoon on once we're into the later rounds.
* This is a tournament with a wide range of quality, so don't expect many early round upsets. If a top 8 seed doesn't reach at least the Round of 16, it should count as a major upset. Starting in the Round of 16, though, there should be some great tennis, once the seeds start playing each other.
* The committee that put these seeds together basically thinks that Cal every bit the team that Stanford is, if not better. Stloukalova, who played a lot of #3 for Cal last year, isn't even seeded, while four Cal players (including two freshmen) are top 8 seeds, and another Cal freshman is a 9 seed. Bright is the #42 player in the preseason rankings, and the tournament thinks she's their fourth-best player. Yikes. Yes, we have six seeded players overall, and our #1 and #2 players are seeded higher than theirs, but their #3 and #4 are seeded higher than ours. You never really know who you have until they start playing matches, of course, but as for right now, the coaches who put the seeds together think the Cal freshmen are legit. And that Cal has an edge in doubles, with three seeded pairs to our two. We knew we wouldn't be quite as good as last year after losing Lord and Lampl (and Yee in doubles), but let's see how our players respond.
* That said, keep in mind that Higuchi would be seeded if she were playing (albeit as a #9), so our depth, as always, is our greatest strength.
* Wong is the other top 8 seed in Gordon's quarter, but Richardson may be the more dangerous player, as the Cal freshman is one of the top 10 newcomers. But Gordon should expect to emerge from her quarter.
* I'm eager to see the Giavara-Blake matchup in the Round of 16, assuming both freshmen get there. The ITA ranked Blake as the #8 newcomer and omitted Giavara from the list, and Blake was more highly-regarded as a recruit, but the seeding committee here gave Giavara the edge. That match (if it happens) would be Saturday at 1:30pm
* Arbuthnott is in line to get Kozyreva in the Round of 16, and the Gael has proven to be a pretty tough out, so that should be a good match. The quarterfinal would be Cal's Anna Bright, which would've struck me as a preview of the regular season #2 line, but that may no longer be the case with Cal's freshman class.
* Shin's Round of 16 matchup is slated to be Santa Clara's Maddie Pothoff, and that's another great matchup of comparably ranked players. It's these kinds of matches that Shin needs to win to show us what kind of season we can expect.
* Madurawe gets Cal's Rosenqvist in the Round of 16 (again, assuming they both get there), and while Rosenqvist clearly has the edge, Madurawe is a gritty player that could absolutely pull off the upset.
* Another likely Cal-Stanford matchup in the Round of 16, with Choy slated to play freshman Valentina Ivanov.
Basically, if you hate Cal, and you love Stanford, then get thee to Taube on Saturday at 1:30pm, because three different Cal-Stanford matchups will start then, though we're not necessarily favored in any of them (three players expected to play in the back half of our lineup against Cal's top three).
Logistics:
* The draws are up, and you can find them (and track results) here: https://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/...&s=7Draws3
* Since the tournament is at Stanford, live video/scoring will be available for the Taube courts (but not the Taube South courts) here: http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/?DB_OEM_ID=30600
The draws:
Here are the seeds in singles, with ITA preseason ranking in parentheses:
(1) Michaela Gordon (#6)
(2) Julia Rosenqvist (Cal, #24)
(3) Emily Arbuthnott (#30)
(4) Haley Giavara (Cal) -- this is a bit of a surprise (I figured she'd be a 9), but this is a sign that the coaches think Giavara is Cal's #2 over Anna Bright
(5) Valentina Ivanov (Cal) -- another surprise; watch this space, as this cohort of Cal freshmen looks to make Cal a much more dangerous team than I would have expected coming into the year.
(6) Anna Bright (Cal, #42) -- not surprising that she's a top 8 seed, but absolutely shocking that she's the fourth Cal player seeded
(7) Vanessa Wong (UW, #54)
(8) Janice Shin (#60)
(9) Angelica Blake (#8 newcomer)
(9) Sara Choy (#87)
(9) Niluka Madurawe (#93)
(9) Klara Kosan (UOP)
(9) Erin Richardson (Cal, #10 newcomer)
(9) Natsuho Arakawa (UW)
(9) Mariia Kozyreva (St. Mary's, #68)
(9) Maddie Pothoff (Santa Clara, #76)
And here are the seeds in doubles:
(1) Rosenqvist/Ivanov (Cal)
(2) Arbuthnott/Blake
(3) Gordon/Shin
(4) Bright/Giavara (Cal)
(5) Arakawa/Wong (UW)
(5) Gevargiz/Pothoff (Santa Clara)
(5) Kozyreva/McIntyre (St. Mary's)
(5) Dunk/Richardson (Cal)
The top 4 seeds have a bye into Saturday morning's second round. Choy/Madurawe are unseeded.
Schedule
Play starts tomorrow, with some doubles starting at around 8:30am, with singles following at 10:00am. Here's what tomorrow's schedule looks like:
9:15am: Choy/Madurawe vs. Ellis/Hummel (Fresno State)
10:00am: (1) Gordon vs. Nikita Pradeep (UC Davis)
11:30am: (9) Blake vs. Allison Mulville (Oregon)
12:30pm: (9) Choy vs. Chiho Mushika (USF)
1:00pm: Taylor Lallas (the lone walk-on on our team) vs. Nina Nikitovic (Portland State)
2:00pm: (3) Arbuthnott vs. Jane Ellis (Fresno State)
3:00pm: (8) Shin vs. Ella Husrefovic (Fresno State)
3:00pm: (9) Madurawe vs. Jamie Schroer (Santa Clara)
Second round singles matches will start on a rolling basis, with the first set of matches starting at 3:30 and the last set starting at 6:30.
Quick Analysis
* This is on campus, so head on down to Taube if you're free at all this weekend, particularly from Saturday afternoon on once we're into the later rounds.
* This is a tournament with a wide range of quality, so don't expect many early round upsets. If a top 8 seed doesn't reach at least the Round of 16, it should count as a major upset. Starting in the Round of 16, though, there should be some great tennis, once the seeds start playing each other.
* The committee that put these seeds together basically thinks that Cal every bit the team that Stanford is, if not better. Stloukalova, who played a lot of #3 for Cal last year, isn't even seeded, while four Cal players (including two freshmen) are top 8 seeds, and another Cal freshman is a 9 seed. Bright is the #42 player in the preseason rankings, and the tournament thinks she's their fourth-best player. Yikes. Yes, we have six seeded players overall, and our #1 and #2 players are seeded higher than theirs, but their #3 and #4 are seeded higher than ours. You never really know who you have until they start playing matches, of course, but as for right now, the coaches who put the seeds together think the Cal freshmen are legit. And that Cal has an edge in doubles, with three seeded pairs to our two. We knew we wouldn't be quite as good as last year after losing Lord and Lampl (and Yee in doubles), but let's see how our players respond.
* That said, keep in mind that Higuchi would be seeded if she were playing (albeit as a #9), so our depth, as always, is our greatest strength.
* Wong is the other top 8 seed in Gordon's quarter, but Richardson may be the more dangerous player, as the Cal freshman is one of the top 10 newcomers. But Gordon should expect to emerge from her quarter.
* I'm eager to see the Giavara-Blake matchup in the Round of 16, assuming both freshmen get there. The ITA ranked Blake as the #8 newcomer and omitted Giavara from the list, and Blake was more highly-regarded as a recruit, but the seeding committee here gave Giavara the edge. That match (if it happens) would be Saturday at 1:30pm
* Arbuthnott is in line to get Kozyreva in the Round of 16, and the Gael has proven to be a pretty tough out, so that should be a good match. The quarterfinal would be Cal's Anna Bright, which would've struck me as a preview of the regular season #2 line, but that may no longer be the case with Cal's freshman class.
* Shin's Round of 16 matchup is slated to be Santa Clara's Maddie Pothoff, and that's another great matchup of comparably ranked players. It's these kinds of matches that Shin needs to win to show us what kind of season we can expect.
* Madurawe gets Cal's Rosenqvist in the Round of 16 (again, assuming they both get there), and while Rosenqvist clearly has the edge, Madurawe is a gritty player that could absolutely pull off the upset.
* Another likely Cal-Stanford matchup in the Round of 16, with Choy slated to play freshman Valentina Ivanov.
Basically, if you hate Cal, and you love Stanford, then get thee to Taube on Saturday at 1:30pm, because three different Cal-Stanford matchups will start then, though we're not necessarily favored in any of them (three players expected to play in the back half of our lineup against Cal's top three).