10-14-2021, 09:30 AM
A couple more items added to the fall schedule:
1. Stanford Invitational on November 5-7. We don't usually host an invitational, so I'm not entirely sure what the scope of this will be, but it's opposite the Fall Nationals the same weekend, so it seems like it's an opportunity to get quality matches for our players who don't qualify for Fall Nationals, and that's a terrific idea. ASU is also hosting an invitational the same weekend
2. Hawaii Invitational on November 20-21. Stanford usually plays exhibition matches against the University of Hawaii in a November trip, but I've always understood that trip to be more of a perk and less about serious competitive matches. (And because we go there, they usually play at Stanford in the spring season.) But now it's on the calendar as an invitational, so whether that means it's still just the two teams but now we want these matches to count, or whether there will be additional top players there, I can't say. But especially after we didn't compete in ITA All-Americans this fall, we need to get all of our players, but especially our younger players, some matches. Hopefully more teams send their best to Hawaii for that one.
I'll do a separate preview thread for Northwest Regionals when we have more information about the draw, but as we're eight days away, here are the basics: it's one of twelve regional championships that qualify players to the Fall Nationals. Historically, the two singles finalists and the doubles champion from each region have qualified for the 64-player singles field and the 32-team doubles field at Fall Nationals, along with a large number of at-large selections based on rankings and approximately 12 players who qualified through performance at other tournaments. This year, however, it's a shrunken 32-player singles field to go with a 32-team doubles field, and the at-large selections are gone for singles and nearly all gone for doubles. The selection criteria also no longer expressly state that the 24 regional finalists will make it--now it says 24 "Regional Selections (2 players per ITA region)." That could be a distinction without a difference, and we'll have to wait and see whether the ITA makes selections based on rankings rather than tournament performance.
But first up is Northwest Regionals, which traditionally has been a 128-player field in which every Stanford player, scholarship or walk-on, plays. The field is drawn from the teams in the ITA Northwest Region, including Stanford, Cal, Washington, Washington State, and Oregon from the Pac-12 as well as smaller-conference schools like St. Mary's, Gonzaga, USF, San Jose State, Santa Clara, etc. In addition to our own players, that field would include Cal freshman Jessica Alsola (the 7th-ranked newcomer) as well as the following ranked players: #14 Vanessa Wong (UW), #17 Haley Giavara (Cal), #47 Michaela Bayerlova (WSU), #57 Mariia Kozyreva (SMC), #106 Julia Rosenqvist (Cal), #109 Catherine Broerman (Gonzaga), #119 Valentina Ivanov (Cal), and #124 Sarah-Maude Fortin (UW). But keep in mind our region suffers from the same bias that affects the team rankings, where a bunch of good-but-not-great teams and players in the SEC (and to a lesser extent, the ACC) beat each other up and climb the rankings because the rankings criteria give major credit to good wins and discount losses, so there's a "rising tide lifts all (SEC/ACC) boats" effect in play. And the relative dearth of ranked players in our region does not reflect the quality of players. If Gordon plays, I am highly confident we'll be a top 5 team by season's end, but the singles rankings won't reflect that.
There was no tournament last year, but Michaela Gordon has won all three she's played. In fall 2019, Gordon won the singles title (beating St. Mary's Mariia Kozyreva), and Arbuthnott/Blake won the doubles title over a Washington pair. In 2018, Gordon beat Caroline Lampl in the singles championship match, while Madurawe/Yee won the doubles title. In 2017, then-freshman Gordon beat Arbuthnott in the singles final, while a couple of Stanford duos lost in the semis (though Gordon/Arbuthnott made it into the Fall Nationals doubles draw as an alternate and then won the whole darn thing). 2016 was the last time Stanford didn't claim the singles title, as then-freshman Emma Higuchi made it through to the final before falling to Cal's Karla Popovic.
1. Stanford Invitational on November 5-7. We don't usually host an invitational, so I'm not entirely sure what the scope of this will be, but it's opposite the Fall Nationals the same weekend, so it seems like it's an opportunity to get quality matches for our players who don't qualify for Fall Nationals, and that's a terrific idea. ASU is also hosting an invitational the same weekend
2. Hawaii Invitational on November 20-21. Stanford usually plays exhibition matches against the University of Hawaii in a November trip, but I've always understood that trip to be more of a perk and less about serious competitive matches. (And because we go there, they usually play at Stanford in the spring season.) But now it's on the calendar as an invitational, so whether that means it's still just the two teams but now we want these matches to count, or whether there will be additional top players there, I can't say. But especially after we didn't compete in ITA All-Americans this fall, we need to get all of our players, but especially our younger players, some matches. Hopefully more teams send their best to Hawaii for that one.
I'll do a separate preview thread for Northwest Regionals when we have more information about the draw, but as we're eight days away, here are the basics: it's one of twelve regional championships that qualify players to the Fall Nationals. Historically, the two singles finalists and the doubles champion from each region have qualified for the 64-player singles field and the 32-team doubles field at Fall Nationals, along with a large number of at-large selections based on rankings and approximately 12 players who qualified through performance at other tournaments. This year, however, it's a shrunken 32-player singles field to go with a 32-team doubles field, and the at-large selections are gone for singles and nearly all gone for doubles. The selection criteria also no longer expressly state that the 24 regional finalists will make it--now it says 24 "Regional Selections (2 players per ITA region)." That could be a distinction without a difference, and we'll have to wait and see whether the ITA makes selections based on rankings rather than tournament performance.
But first up is Northwest Regionals, which traditionally has been a 128-player field in which every Stanford player, scholarship or walk-on, plays. The field is drawn from the teams in the ITA Northwest Region, including Stanford, Cal, Washington, Washington State, and Oregon from the Pac-12 as well as smaller-conference schools like St. Mary's, Gonzaga, USF, San Jose State, Santa Clara, etc. In addition to our own players, that field would include Cal freshman Jessica Alsola (the 7th-ranked newcomer) as well as the following ranked players: #14 Vanessa Wong (UW), #17 Haley Giavara (Cal), #47 Michaela Bayerlova (WSU), #57 Mariia Kozyreva (SMC), #106 Julia Rosenqvist (Cal), #109 Catherine Broerman (Gonzaga), #119 Valentina Ivanov (Cal), and #124 Sarah-Maude Fortin (UW). But keep in mind our region suffers from the same bias that affects the team rankings, where a bunch of good-but-not-great teams and players in the SEC (and to a lesser extent, the ACC) beat each other up and climb the rankings because the rankings criteria give major credit to good wins and discount losses, so there's a "rising tide lifts all (SEC/ACC) boats" effect in play. And the relative dearth of ranked players in our region does not reflect the quality of players. If Gordon plays, I am highly confident we'll be a top 5 team by season's end, but the singles rankings won't reflect that.
There was no tournament last year, but Michaela Gordon has won all three she's played. In fall 2019, Gordon won the singles title (beating St. Mary's Mariia Kozyreva), and Arbuthnott/Blake won the doubles title over a Washington pair. In 2018, Gordon beat Caroline Lampl in the singles championship match, while Madurawe/Yee won the doubles title. In 2017, then-freshman Gordon beat Arbuthnott in the singles final, while a couple of Stanford duos lost in the semis (though Gordon/Arbuthnott made it into the Fall Nationals doubles draw as an alternate and then won the whole darn thing). 2016 was the last time Stanford didn't claim the singles title, as then-freshman Emma Higuchi made it through to the final before falling to Cal's Karla Popovic.