05-23-2018, 09:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-23-2018, 12:53 PM by ColoradoTree.)
I know. More tennis, you ask? After that yesterday? We can't possibly handle it.
But lest you think tennis is done for the year, we have the individual singles and doubles tournaments coming up from Wake Forest. Most of the team will head back to Stanford, but Melissa Lord, Michaela Gordon, and Emily Arbuthnott, have more work to do on the tennis courts first. All three will participate in the singles tournament, which starts today, and Arbuthnott/Gordon will play in the doubles tournament starting tomorrow. Gordon is a (9-16) seed in singles--they seed the top 8 players in order, but then take the 9-16 players and randomly assign them to different sections of the draw--and Arbuthnott/Gordon are the 3 seed in doubles.
Singles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake...ingles.pdf
Doubles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake...oubles.pdf
Overview
Gordon is already a singles All-American this year, and Arbuthnott/Gordon are already doubles All-Americans, because they were seeded in singles and doubles tournaments. So, for Lord and Arbuthnott in singles, the other ways to get that status are to (1) make the Round of 16, or (2) be ranked in the final Top 20 of the team tournament. Lord has a shot at the latter one, because of some solid wins in the NCAA tournament (#26 Sanford from UNC, #55 Chi from Duke, #75 Shaffer from Georgia, and last but not least, #10 Contreras from Vanderbilt), so if Lord wins her first match but loses her second, she still might get there. Arbuthnott will have to win two matches, though.
If Gordon wins her first match--and she should, as it's her biggest UTR advantage of the postseason--she could get a second round rematch with Hawaii's Petra Melounova (who beat Gordon in a bit of a surprise this year), if Melounova can upset #21 Gabriela Talaba of Texas Tech. Looming in the Round of 16, however, is #1 Bianca Turati of Texas, who has beaten Gordon twice this year, but Turati has to get past some pretty good players first, including UNC's Sanford, UCLA's Jada Hart, and Pepperdine's #1, Luisa Stefani. (EDIT: Turati lost to Stefani in the first round, so Gordon's path is somewhat clearer.)
Lord and Arbuthnott both draw seeds, but I don't think there's anyone in the college tennis world that doesn't think Melissa Lord is a top 16 player right now. Lord plays FIU's Andrea Lazaro, the #13 player in the country, who has held her ranking on the strength of winning ITA Fall Nationals (the same tournament Arbuthnott/Gordon won in doubles), though playing in the middling C-USA has dragged it down somewhat. That should be a great one, if Lord can refocus her energies on singles after the team win yesterday, and Lord is actually a slight favorite in terms of UTR. But I'm prepared for some tired legs out there. She just clinched a team national championship, and that's the one that counts, so any individual hardware is just gravy.
Arbuthnott gets a tough draw, playing #4 Samantha Harris of Duke, who just beat Gordon in the team semifinals, but Arbuthnott is only at a slight UTR disadvantage, so she should be competitive.
In singles, if you want to #BackThePac, the following conference players are in the draw, in order of ranking:
(7) Ena Shibahara, UCLA
(9-16) Stacey Fung, UW (now through to second round)
Michaela Bayerlova, WSU (now through to second round)
Jada Hart, UCLA (now through to second round)
Gabby Smith, USC (lost in first round)
Julia Rosenqvist, Cal (lost in first round)
Alyssa Tobita, Oregon (lost in first round)
Anna Bright, Cal (lost in first round)
Vanessa Wong, UW (now through to second round)
Olivia Hauger, Cal (lost in first round)
(I've said it before, but it's kind of embarrassing for Cal that they have three players that qualified for this tournament, but couldn't get their team over the hump. That's the same number of qualifiers as Stanford, Vanderbilt, UNC, and Duke, more than several other seeds (Georgia Tech, UCLA, Texas, Texas Tech, Florida, and Oklahoma State had 2, and Georgia, Northwestern, South Carolina, and Ole Miss had just 1 apiece), and fewer than only Pepperdine's four. In one sense, I delight in such a profound failure, because it's really inexcusable, but it also affected us this year--if Cal is a Top 25 team this season, we're probably the #12 seed instead of the #15, though that turned out not to matter much. But in the future, it might be more consequential, so get it together, Cal. Get better--but not that much better.)
Wednesday, May 23 (all times Pacific):
Singles - Round of 64
The organizers kindly gave the Stanford and Vanderbilt players the last possible start times today, because they have to be exhausted.
12:30pm: #40 Melissa Lord vs. (9-16) Andrea Lazaro, Florida International (Lord by 0.15 in UTR)
1:00pm: (9-16) Michaela Gordon vs. #72 Fatima Bizhukova, Wichita State (Gordon by 0.71)
1:00pm: #43 Emily Arbuthnott vs. (4) Samantha Harris (Duke) (Arbuthnott trails by 0.07)
Thursday, May 24:
Singles - Round of 32
TBD
Doubles - Round of 32
Time TBD: (3) Arbuthnott/Gordon vs. #15 Carter/Davis (Wake Forest)
But lest you think tennis is done for the year, we have the individual singles and doubles tournaments coming up from Wake Forest. Most of the team will head back to Stanford, but Melissa Lord, Michaela Gordon, and Emily Arbuthnott, have more work to do on the tennis courts first. All three will participate in the singles tournament, which starts today, and Arbuthnott/Gordon will play in the doubles tournament starting tomorrow. Gordon is a (9-16) seed in singles--they seed the top 8 players in order, but then take the 9-16 players and randomly assign them to different sections of the draw--and Arbuthnott/Gordon are the 3 seed in doubles.
Singles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake...ingles.pdf
Doubles bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake...oubles.pdf
Overview
Gordon is already a singles All-American this year, and Arbuthnott/Gordon are already doubles All-Americans, because they were seeded in singles and doubles tournaments. So, for Lord and Arbuthnott in singles, the other ways to get that status are to (1) make the Round of 16, or (2) be ranked in the final Top 20 of the team tournament. Lord has a shot at the latter one, because of some solid wins in the NCAA tournament (#26 Sanford from UNC, #55 Chi from Duke, #75 Shaffer from Georgia, and last but not least, #10 Contreras from Vanderbilt), so if Lord wins her first match but loses her second, she still might get there. Arbuthnott will have to win two matches, though.
If Gordon wins her first match--and she should, as it's her biggest UTR advantage of the postseason--she could get a second round rematch with Hawaii's Petra Melounova (who beat Gordon in a bit of a surprise this year), if Melounova can upset #21 Gabriela Talaba of Texas Tech. Looming in the Round of 16, however, is #1 Bianca Turati of Texas, who has beaten Gordon twice this year, but Turati has to get past some pretty good players first, including UNC's Sanford, UCLA's Jada Hart, and Pepperdine's #1, Luisa Stefani. (EDIT: Turati lost to Stefani in the first round, so Gordon's path is somewhat clearer.)
Lord and Arbuthnott both draw seeds, but I don't think there's anyone in the college tennis world that doesn't think Melissa Lord is a top 16 player right now. Lord plays FIU's Andrea Lazaro, the #13 player in the country, who has held her ranking on the strength of winning ITA Fall Nationals (the same tournament Arbuthnott/Gordon won in doubles), though playing in the middling C-USA has dragged it down somewhat. That should be a great one, if Lord can refocus her energies on singles after the team win yesterday, and Lord is actually a slight favorite in terms of UTR. But I'm prepared for some tired legs out there. She just clinched a team national championship, and that's the one that counts, so any individual hardware is just gravy.
Arbuthnott gets a tough draw, playing #4 Samantha Harris of Duke, who just beat Gordon in the team semifinals, but Arbuthnott is only at a slight UTR disadvantage, so she should be competitive.
In singles, if you want to #BackThePac, the following conference players are in the draw, in order of ranking:
(7) Ena Shibahara, UCLA
(9-16) Stacey Fung, UW (now through to second round)
Michaela Bayerlova, WSU (now through to second round)
Jada Hart, UCLA (now through to second round)
Gabby Smith, USC (lost in first round)
Julia Rosenqvist, Cal (lost in first round)
Alyssa Tobita, Oregon (lost in first round)
Anna Bright, Cal (lost in first round)
Vanessa Wong, UW (now through to second round)
Olivia Hauger, Cal (lost in first round)
(I've said it before, but it's kind of embarrassing for Cal that they have three players that qualified for this tournament, but couldn't get their team over the hump. That's the same number of qualifiers as Stanford, Vanderbilt, UNC, and Duke, more than several other seeds (Georgia Tech, UCLA, Texas, Texas Tech, Florida, and Oklahoma State had 2, and Georgia, Northwestern, South Carolina, and Ole Miss had just 1 apiece), and fewer than only Pepperdine's four. In one sense, I delight in such a profound failure, because it's really inexcusable, but it also affected us this year--if Cal is a Top 25 team this season, we're probably the #12 seed instead of the #15, though that turned out not to matter much. But in the future, it might be more consequential, so get it together, Cal. Get better--but not that much better.)
Wednesday, May 23 (all times Pacific):
Singles - Round of 64
The organizers kindly gave the Stanford and Vanderbilt players the last possible start times today, because they have to be exhausted.
12:30pm: #40 Melissa Lord vs. (9-16) Andrea Lazaro, Florida International (Lord by 0.15 in UTR)
1:00pm: (9-16) Michaela Gordon vs. #72 Fatima Bizhukova, Wichita State (Gordon by 0.71)
1:00pm: #43 Emily Arbuthnott vs. (4) Samantha Harris (Duke) (Arbuthnott trails by 0.07)
Thursday, May 24:
Singles - Round of 32
TBD
Doubles - Round of 32
Time TBD: (3) Arbuthnott/Gordon vs. #15 Carter/Davis (Wake Forest)
