[ColoradoTree]

I like that lineup. Blake was the unknown but she is becoming more known and I'm feeling a little better overall.

My goodness, the way the ball flew off her racket in doubles! I would have loved to see her play Giavara in the Round of 16, but if she couldn't go, she couldn't go. Must have been a 24-hour bug or something, since she looked pretty darn good in doubles. 

I'm excited to see her in more tournaments. She won't play singles at Fall Nationals, of course, but perhaps there's a way to get some added matches in anyway, since it's a long time until the January tournaments we usually play (the Freeman Memorial in Las Vegas and the NCTC in SoCal). 

And even if that's not the lineup, we're looking like a team that isn't as good as last year's team (not shockingly), and I'd favor teams like UNC and Pepperdine over us, but not by a ton, and I'd favor us over teams like UCLA and Cal, but by less than last year. We're still a Top 10 team, and once you get in the tournament, you never know. We've got a long way to go before NCAAs start, and if there's anything we know about Lele, it's getting consistent improvement over the course of the year on the way to peaking at NCAAs. Each team is a new animal, after all. How could we have known in the fall of 2015 that freshmen Melissa Lord and Caroline Lampl would be unbeatable at #5 and #6, and would make the NCAA All-Tournament team at those spots? I'm trying to be realistic about our chances, but then again, if there's any team on campus that continuously rewards an overly optimistic outlook, it's this one.

---

It's also good to keep this particular team's success in mind. They have won two straight national championships. They've won three in a row just twice before, from 2004-06 and as part of an insane six-year title streak from 1986 to 1991. On one hand, every player on the roster, save the freshmen of course, has won a national title. On the other, perhaps it's OK if they're not quite as good this year as last year.

[ColoradoTree]

I like that lineup. Blake was the unknown but she is becoming more known and I'm feeling a little better overall.

My goodness, the way the ball flew off her racket in doubles! I would have loved to see her play Giavara in the Round of 16, but if she couldn't go, she couldn't go. Must have been a 24-hour bug or something, since she looked pretty darn good in doubles. 

I'm excited to see her in more tournaments. She won't play singles at Fall Nationals, of course, but perhaps there's a way to get some added matches in anyway, since it's a long time until the January tournaments we usually play (the Freeman Memorial in Las Vegas and the NCTC in SoCal). 

And even if that's not the lineup, we're looking like a team that isn't as good as last year's team (not shockingly), and I'd favor teams like UNC and Pepperdine over us, but not by a ton, and I'd favor us over teams like UCLA and Cal, but by less than last year. We're still a Top 10 team, and once you get in the tournament, you never know. We've got a long way to go before NCAAs start, and if there's anything we know about Lele, it's getting consistent improvement over the course of the year on the way to peaking at NCAAs. Each team is a new animal, after all. How could we have known in the fall of 2015 that freshmen Melissa Lord and Caroline Lampl would be unbeatable at #5 and #6, and would make the NCAA All-Tournament team at those spots? I'm trying to be realistic about our chances, but then again, if there's any team on campus that continuously rewards an overly optimistic outlook, it's this one.

---

It's also good to keep this particular team's success in mind. They have won two straight national championships. They've won three in a row just twice before, from 2004-06 and as part of an insane six-year title streak from 1986 to 1991. On one hand, every player on the roster, save the freshmen of course, has won a national title. On the other, perhaps it's OK if they're not quite as good this year as last year.