02-06-2019, 09:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-07-2019, 08:14 AM by ColoradoTree.)
Indoor Nationals is finally here, this Friday through Monday in Seattle, Washington. Matches will be held at both the Nordstrom Tennis Center (on UW's campus) and at the Seattle Tennis Club.
The details
It's a single-elimination tournament with a consolation draw, and a guarantee of three matches, so if you lose the first two, you'll get an added match with another team. The top 8 teams are seeded and placed in a traditional bracket format, and their first-round opponents are drawn at random. Everyone will get three matches except for the two teams who reach the championship, who get four.
Washington qualified as the host school, while the other 15 teams made it through a 4-team regional (ITA Kick-Off Weekend) a couple of weeks ago.
The draws
(1) Stanford (3-0) vs. #18 LSU (6-0)
(8) Texas (3-1) vs. #12 Northwestern (3-2)
(4) Vanderbilt (3-1) vs. Washington (5-0)
(5) Georgia (3-0) vs. #14 N.C. State (6-0)
(3) Duke (5-0) vs. #16 Ohio State (3-1)
(6) Pepperdine (2-0) vs. #10 Syracuse (4-2)
(2) UNC (6-0) vs. #9 Oklahoma State (4-3)
(7) UCLA (4-0) vs. #15 South Carolina (4-1)
Losses in that group:
Vanderbilt lost to UNC
Texas lost to Michigan
Oklahoma State lost to Duke, UCLA, and Arkansas
Syracuse lost to UVA and BC
Northwestern lost to Kansas and Vanderbilt
South Carolina lost to USC
Ohio State lost to Texas (but it was 4-3, with 4 singles matches going to a third set)
Here's a link to the draws and other tournament information:
https://www.slam.tennis/ita/indoors/2019/ncaaw
https://www.itatennis.com/ITA/Events/Eve...f21ea2407c
Order of Play:
Friday, February 8th (all times PT)
9am: Duke vs. Ohio State and Pepperdine vs. Syracuse
Noon: UNC vs. Oklahoma State and UCLA vs. South Carolina
3:30pm: Stanford vs. LSU and Texas vs. Northwestern
6:30pm: Vanderbilt vs. Washington and Georgia vs. N.C. State
Analysis:
No draw at Indoor Nationals is an easy one, but being the #1 seed has some advantages. As far as first round matches go, Stanford gets #18 LSU, who is undefeated, but who has also not really been challenged yet (LSU beat a just-OK Clemson team in the first round of ITA Kickoff Weekend, and then got Tennessee, who had upset Florida State the day before). After all the worrying about whether we'd get some repeats of some regular season matches at this tournament, we could play Texas and Vanderbilt consecutively in this tournament, when we'll see them at Taube in the next few weeks anyway. That's something of a disappointment, but wins in those matches will still be really valuable for our ranking.
Stanford may be the #1 seed, but nobody has a better win this season than UNC, who beat #2 Vanderbilt in Nashville. Not much of a dark horse pick to guess the #2 seed might win the tournament, but they look to have it together this year.
If you made me pick the bracket, I'll take chalk in the first round (Texas is the only seed I think might get upset), and that's where things get interesting. Duke-Pepperdine and Vanderbilt-Georgia in particular should both be terrific matches. I'll never pick against Stanford, but this will be a fun ride.
Can I follow along?
Yes! There will be live scoring through Tennis Ticker, and live streaming of certain matches (the ones held on campus, not at the Seattle Tennis Club) here:
https://gohuskies.com/sports/2018/2/8/wo...tream.aspx. Here's the live scoring link: http://scores.tennisticker.de/usa/ita/wi...ml?lid=200
Rankings Update
Team:
No new ITA team rankings this week, but the USTA's rankings are out, with Stanford holding onto the top spot there: https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-curren...-2019.html
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, UCLA is #5, USC is #20, and Cal is tops in the "others receiving votes" group, so effectively #26.
Singles:
New ITA singles rankings out this morning, and it looks like they finally counted Northwest Regionals, but more than that, Stanford has eight players in the rankings, and that's just nasty:
14. Emily Arbuthnott (up from 16)
23. Michaela Gordon (up from 103)
37. Janice Shin (up from 51)
44. Emma Higuchi (down from 38)
46. Melissa Lord (up from unranked)
57. Caroline Lampl (up from unranked)
68. Niluka Madurawe (up from unranked)
80. Sara Choy (up from unranked)
Doubles:
11. Lampl/Yee (down from 7)
13. Arbuthnott/Gordon (steady)
28. Yee/Madurawe (up from unranked)
31. Lord/Madurawe (up from unranked)
The details
It's a single-elimination tournament with a consolation draw, and a guarantee of three matches, so if you lose the first two, you'll get an added match with another team. The top 8 teams are seeded and placed in a traditional bracket format, and their first-round opponents are drawn at random. Everyone will get three matches except for the two teams who reach the championship, who get four.
Washington qualified as the host school, while the other 15 teams made it through a 4-team regional (ITA Kick-Off Weekend) a couple of weeks ago.
The draws
(1) Stanford (3-0) vs. #18 LSU (6-0)
(8) Texas (3-1) vs. #12 Northwestern (3-2)
(4) Vanderbilt (3-1) vs. Washington (5-0)
(5) Georgia (3-0) vs. #14 N.C. State (6-0)
(3) Duke (5-0) vs. #16 Ohio State (3-1)
(6) Pepperdine (2-0) vs. #10 Syracuse (4-2)
(2) UNC (6-0) vs. #9 Oklahoma State (4-3)
(7) UCLA (4-0) vs. #15 South Carolina (4-1)
Losses in that group:
Vanderbilt lost to UNC
Texas lost to Michigan
Oklahoma State lost to Duke, UCLA, and Arkansas
Syracuse lost to UVA and BC
Northwestern lost to Kansas and Vanderbilt
South Carolina lost to USC
Ohio State lost to Texas (but it was 4-3, with 4 singles matches going to a third set)
Here's a link to the draws and other tournament information:
https://www.slam.tennis/ita/indoors/2019/ncaaw
https://www.itatennis.com/ITA/Events/Eve...f21ea2407c
Order of Play:
Friday, February 8th (all times PT)
9am: Duke vs. Ohio State and Pepperdine vs. Syracuse
Noon: UNC vs. Oklahoma State and UCLA vs. South Carolina
3:30pm: Stanford vs. LSU and Texas vs. Northwestern
6:30pm: Vanderbilt vs. Washington and Georgia vs. N.C. State
Analysis:
No draw at Indoor Nationals is an easy one, but being the #1 seed has some advantages. As far as first round matches go, Stanford gets #18 LSU, who is undefeated, but who has also not really been challenged yet (LSU beat a just-OK Clemson team in the first round of ITA Kickoff Weekend, and then got Tennessee, who had upset Florida State the day before). After all the worrying about whether we'd get some repeats of some regular season matches at this tournament, we could play Texas and Vanderbilt consecutively in this tournament, when we'll see them at Taube in the next few weeks anyway. That's something of a disappointment, but wins in those matches will still be really valuable for our ranking.
Stanford may be the #1 seed, but nobody has a better win this season than UNC, who beat #2 Vanderbilt in Nashville. Not much of a dark horse pick to guess the #2 seed might win the tournament, but they look to have it together this year.
If you made me pick the bracket, I'll take chalk in the first round (Texas is the only seed I think might get upset), and that's where things get interesting. Duke-Pepperdine and Vanderbilt-Georgia in particular should both be terrific matches. I'll never pick against Stanford, but this will be a fun ride.
Can I follow along?
Yes! There will be live scoring through Tennis Ticker, and live streaming of certain matches (the ones held on campus, not at the Seattle Tennis Club) here:
https://gohuskies.com/sports/2018/2/8/wo...tream.aspx. Here's the live scoring link: http://scores.tennisticker.de/usa/ita/wi...ml?lid=200
Rankings Update
Team:
No new ITA team rankings this week, but the USTA's rankings are out, with Stanford holding onto the top spot there: https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-curren...-2019.html
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, UCLA is #5, USC is #20, and Cal is tops in the "others receiving votes" group, so effectively #26.
Singles:
New ITA singles rankings out this morning, and it looks like they finally counted Northwest Regionals, but more than that, Stanford has eight players in the rankings, and that's just nasty:
14. Emily Arbuthnott (up from 16)
23. Michaela Gordon (up from 103)
37. Janice Shin (up from 51)
44. Emma Higuchi (down from 38)
46. Melissa Lord (up from unranked)
57. Caroline Lampl (up from unranked)
68. Niluka Madurawe (up from unranked)
80. Sara Choy (up from unranked)
Doubles:
11. Lampl/Yee (down from 7)
13. Arbuthnott/Gordon (steady)
28. Yee/Madurawe (up from unranked)
31. Lord/Madurawe (up from unranked)

