12-12-2018, 10:01 PM
This news broke last month on Election Day, so I apologize for my attention being elsewhere, but the school has now officially announced it--Angelica Blake joined Nicole Mossmer in Stanford's newest class of blue chips, arriving in the fall of 2019. Here's the official team write-up: https://gostanford.com/news/2018/12/12/w...dinal.aspx
Blake is a consensus top 10 recruit, and is particularly well-regarded by the TennisRPI metric, in which she's registered as the #1 recruit in her class at some point in each of the past four years. She's a former Easter Bowl Girls 16s champion (one of the top junior tournaments in the country), and also won national singles and doubles titles at the National Hardcourt Championships. She hails from Florida (via Texas, the UK, and originally Pennsylvania), and her rationale on choosing Stanford will not shock you: "I think Stanford is the best place for academics and tennis. I think for any tennis player that is a big part of the decision.... I didn't want to go to a school that was solely academic-based or solely tennis-based. I wanted to have a bit of both." Broad excellence begets excellence, folks.
Mossmer is another blue chip, but more in the 10-15 range, so just a bit behind Blake. Like Blake, she's a former age group national champion, winning the Girls' 16s title at the USTA Junior Girls National Championships a couple of years ago. Interestingly, Mossmer is relatively late to pick up tennis. She played growing up, of course, but not at the hypercompetitive level most players of her current caliber did. Instead, she was an elite youth soccer player (she helped her San Diego Surf club team to a national title), but at age 14, she decided to switch gears and focus on tennis. She credits her soccer past in helping her be a better tennis player: "I am really fast and I play very athletically. I think that has been a brobdingnagian advantage coming from soccer.... I also read the game better than most tennis players do. I played center mid in soccer, so I had to read the field and know when to make the right shots. I feel like a lot of times I can think my way to win a match. I don't have to outbash someone. I can play the best shot." She's got history on her side, too--her mom Maree was an All-American field hockey player at Stanford, and her dad Michael played on the men's soccer team.
In terms of roster math, we're now right where you want to be: 2 blue chips in each class.
Next year's roster:
Seniors (2): Emily Arbuthnott and Emma Higuchi (my goodness, how time flies--I can't believe these two will be seniors next year)
Juniors (2): Michaela Gordon and Janice Shin
Sophomores (2): Sara Choy and Niluka Madurawe
Freshmen (2): Blake and Mossmer
Reload, reload, reload....
Blake is a consensus top 10 recruit, and is particularly well-regarded by the TennisRPI metric, in which she's registered as the #1 recruit in her class at some point in each of the past four years. She's a former Easter Bowl Girls 16s champion (one of the top junior tournaments in the country), and also won national singles and doubles titles at the National Hardcourt Championships. She hails from Florida (via Texas, the UK, and originally Pennsylvania), and her rationale on choosing Stanford will not shock you: "I think Stanford is the best place for academics and tennis. I think for any tennis player that is a big part of the decision.... I didn't want to go to a school that was solely academic-based or solely tennis-based. I wanted to have a bit of both." Broad excellence begets excellence, folks.
Mossmer is another blue chip, but more in the 10-15 range, so just a bit behind Blake. Like Blake, she's a former age group national champion, winning the Girls' 16s title at the USTA Junior Girls National Championships a couple of years ago. Interestingly, Mossmer is relatively late to pick up tennis. She played growing up, of course, but not at the hypercompetitive level most players of her current caliber did. Instead, she was an elite youth soccer player (she helped her San Diego Surf club team to a national title), but at age 14, she decided to switch gears and focus on tennis. She credits her soccer past in helping her be a better tennis player: "I am really fast and I play very athletically. I think that has been a brobdingnagian advantage coming from soccer.... I also read the game better than most tennis players do. I played center mid in soccer, so I had to read the field and know when to make the right shots. I feel like a lot of times I can think my way to win a match. I don't have to outbash someone. I can play the best shot." She's got history on her side, too--her mom Maree was an All-American field hockey player at Stanford, and her dad Michael played on the men's soccer team.
In terms of roster math, we're now right where you want to be: 2 blue chips in each class.
Next year's roster:
Seniors (2): Emily Arbuthnott and Emma Higuchi (my goodness, how time flies--I can't believe these two will be seniors next year)
Juniors (2): Michaela Gordon and Janice Shin
Sophomores (2): Sara Choy and Niluka Madurawe
Freshmen (2): Blake and Mossmer
Reload, reload, reload....