[ColoradoTree]

Navarro holds on deciding point to open the third set. Meanwhile, Choy had a break point to win the match but couldn’t convert; some hiccups there for her in trying to finish it out. 5-1 turned into 5-4 pretty quickly.

---

Choy closes it out! Now 3-3 as Ma and Navarro split deciding points to open the third set.

And yeah, that should have been the clincher. Yepifanova had that third set, and she let it get away.

[ColoradoTree]

Navarro holds on deciding point to open the third set. Meanwhile, Choy had a break point to win the match but couldn’t convert; some hiccups there for her in trying to finish it out. 5-1 turned into 5-4 pretty quickly.

---

Choy closes it out! Now 3-3 as Ma and Navarro split deciding points to open the third set.

And yeah, that should have been the clincher. Yepifanova had that third set, and she let it get away.

[cardfan77]

Choy wins her match.

All eyes on Ma. 1-1 in the third set. Ma serving

[cardfan77]

Choy wins her match.

All eyes on Ma. 1-1 in the third set. Ma serving

[ColoradoTree]

Ma broken to give Navarro a 3-2 lead.

---

And then Ma gets it to deciding point, but Navarro holds for 4-2. Ugh. 

Not done yet, and yes, Yepifanova absolutely should’ve won. But Geller played poorly, far beneath her level, for the second straight day. It’s a problem.

---

Ma holds and it’s 4-3 Navarro. Ma needs to find something here late….

[ColoradoTree]

Ma broken to give Navarro a 3-2 lead.

---

And then Ma gets it to deciding point, but Navarro holds for 4-2. Ugh. 

Not done yet, and yes, Yepifanova absolutely should’ve won. But Geller played poorly, far beneath her level, for the second straight day. It’s a problem.

---

Ma holds and it’s 4-3 Navarro. Ma needs to find something here late….

[cardfan77]

Maybe it’s time for Houghton to showcase her talent. Obviously Geller is struggling

---

Win or lose, this has been an incredible match for Ma

[cardfan77]

Maybe it’s time for Houghton to showcase her talent. Obviously Geller is struggling

---

Win or lose, this has been an incredible match for Ma

[magnus]

Just in case anyone was wondering, Ma was unable to pull out the 3rd set and Stanford went down 4-3.

BTW, what were the VA fans cheering?  Va-hoo?

[magnus]

Just in case anyone was wondering, Ma was unable to pull out the 3rd set and Stanford went down 4-3.

BTW, what were the VA fans cheering?  Va-hoo?

[cardfan77]

Just in case anyone was wondering, Ma was unable to pull out the 3rd set and Stanford went down 4-3.

BTW, what were the VA fans cheering?  Va-hoo?

Whatever it was, I found it very obnoxious. I also thought their coach was annoying. I don’t know if was a delay tactic but she often went to the baseline to talk to her player between points even on Ma’s serve.

[cardfan77]

Just in case anyone was wondering, Ma was unable to pull out the 3rd set and Stanford went down 4-3.

BTW, what were the VA fans cheering?  Va-hoo?

Whatever it was, I found it very obnoxious. I also thought their coach was annoying. I don’t know if was a delay tactic but she often went to the baseline to talk to her player between points even on Ma’s serve.

[oldalum]

Wahoo

[oldalum]

Wahoo

[ColoradoTree]

Probably Wa-hoo or wa-hoo-wa? https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/09/vi...nship-game

Anyway, the way that match unfolded was such a bummer. You can't put that result on Ma by any means. As good as Ma is, she should lose that match. That she pushed it to the bitter end is a great credit to her, and it presages good and exciting things for this group. Blake's loss is disappointing--not that she lost, but that she was every bit Subhash's equal in the first set and then she folded her tent in the second. Again, going in, I would've expected Subhash to win, but I'd hoped for a better effort from Blake. 

But let's be honest here. If Yepifanova doesn't fall apart at the end of the third set, we won that match 4-2 and we're the toast of the tennis world. If Geller isn't an absolutely bewildering no-show for two matches running, we might have won that 4-1 and the cheers are even louder. I don't mind when our players lose to other great players. But it's deeply frustrating when we have another team on the ropes and let them off the hook. And you simply can't have that kind of effort at the 4 spot in the lineup from Geller. She should be darn near an automatic win at that line, and I just don't understand what's going on with her. 

Sigh. Lessons learned, sure. That one will stick in Yepifanova's craw, and I don't doubt she'll use that as fuel for the future, both the slow start and the inability to finish (though her fight back to take the second and go up a break in the third was all great). Choy struggled to finish against a lesser player, but she pulled it off. Xu was terrific. Ma was terrific. Blake was mostly pretty good. This team will use this and get better, for sure. But Geller is a problem. Such wide swings in quality of play from being able to beat a Top 30 player to losing in straight sets to someone far below your level--a more consistent level of quality is essential, and we need to see it, or she shouldn't be playing. 

Up next is a home date with USF on Thursday, 2/3. With no Indoor Nationals, we might well see another non-conference match or two scheduled for that window the following weekend, but as of right now, our next match wouldn't be Feb. 18 vs. St. Mary's.

[ColoradoTree]

Probably Wa-hoo or wa-hoo-wa? https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/09/vi...nship-game

Anyway, the way that match unfolded was such a bummer. You can't put that result on Ma by any means. As good as Ma is, she should lose that match. That she pushed it to the bitter end is a great credit to her, and it presages good and exciting things for this group. Blake's loss is disappointing--not that she lost, but that she was every bit Subhash's equal in the first set and then she folded her tent in the second. Again, going in, I would've expected Subhash to win, but I'd hoped for a better effort from Blake. 

But let's be honest here. If Yepifanova doesn't fall apart at the end of the third set, we won that match 4-2 and we're the toast of the tennis world. If Geller isn't an absolutely bewildering no-show for two matches running, we might have won that 4-1 and the cheers are even louder. I don't mind when our players lose to other great players. But it's deeply frustrating when we have another team on the ropes and let them off the hook. And you simply can't have that kind of effort at the 4 spot in the lineup from Geller. She should be darn near an automatic win at that line, and I just don't understand what's going on with her. 

Sigh. Lessons learned, sure. That one will stick in Yepifanova's craw, and I don't doubt she'll use that as fuel for the future, both the slow start and the inability to finish (though her fight back to take the second and go up a break in the third was all great). Choy struggled to finish against a lesser player, but she pulled it off. Xu was terrific. Ma was terrific. Blake was mostly pretty good. This team will use this and get better, for sure. But Geller is a problem. Such wide swings in quality of play from being able to beat a Top 30 player to losing in straight sets to someone far below your level--a more consistent level of quality is essential, and we need to see it, or she shouldn't be playing. 

Up next is a home date with USF on Thursday, 2/3. With no Indoor Nationals, we might well see another non-conference match or two scheduled for that window the following weekend, but as of right now, our next match wouldn't be Feb. 18 vs. St. Mary's.

[teejers1]

Probably Wa-hoo or wa-hoo-wa? https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/09/vi...nship-game

Anyway, the way that match unfolded was such a bummer. You can't put that result on Ma by any means. As good as Ma is, she should lose that match. That she pushed it to the bitter end is a great credit to her, and it presages good and exciting things for this group. Blake's loss is disappointing--not that she lost, but that she was every bit Subhash's equal in the first set and then she folded her tent in the second. Again, going in, I would've expected Subhash to win, but I'd hoped for a better effort from Blake. 

But let's be honest here. If Yepifanova doesn't fall apart at the end of the third set, we won that match 4-2 and we're the toast of the tennis world. If Geller isn't an absolutely bewildering no-show for two matches running, we might have won that 4-1 and the cheers are even louder. I don't mind when our players lose to other great players. But it's deeply frustrating when we have another team on the ropes and let them off the hook. And you simply can't have that kind of effort at the 4 spot in the lineup from Geller. She should be darn near an automatic win at that line, and I just don't understand what's going on with her. 

Sigh. Lessons learned, sure. That one will stick in Yepifanova's craw, and I don't doubt she'll use that as fuel for the future, both the slow start and the inability to finish (though her fight back to take the second and go up a break in the third was all great). Choy struggled to finish against a lesser player, but she pulled it off. Xu was terrific. Ma was terrific. Blake was mostly pretty good. This team will use this and get better, for sure. But Geller is a problem. Such wide swings in quality of play from being able to beat a Top 30 player to losing in straight sets to someone far below your level--a more consistent level of quality is essential, and we need to see it, or she shouldn't be playing. 

Up next is a home date with USF on Thursday, 2/3. With no Indoor Nationals, we might well see another non-conference match or two scheduled for that window the following weekend, but as of right now, our next match wouldn't be Feb. 18 vs. St. Mary's.

CT, your tennis reporting is tops.
And after reading your posts, I'm thinking Stanford will win the NCAAs this year.
Maybe easily, assuming health and younger players getting used to the college/team game.

Is that crazy?  

P.S.  Gotta believe others feel the same way.

[teejers1]

Probably Wa-hoo or wa-hoo-wa? https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/09/vi...nship-game

Anyway, the way that match unfolded was such a bummer. You can't put that result on Ma by any means. As good as Ma is, she should lose that match. That she pushed it to the bitter end is a great credit to her, and it presages good and exciting things for this group. Blake's loss is disappointing--not that she lost, but that she was every bit Subhash's equal in the first set and then she folded her tent in the second. Again, going in, I would've expected Subhash to win, but I'd hoped for a better effort from Blake. 

But let's be honest here. If Yepifanova doesn't fall apart at the end of the third set, we won that match 4-2 and we're the toast of the tennis world. If Geller isn't an absolutely bewildering no-show for two matches running, we might have won that 4-1 and the cheers are even louder. I don't mind when our players lose to other great players. But it's deeply frustrating when we have another team on the ropes and let them off the hook. And you simply can't have that kind of effort at the 4 spot in the lineup from Geller. She should be darn near an automatic win at that line, and I just don't understand what's going on with her. 

Sigh. Lessons learned, sure. That one will stick in Yepifanova's craw, and I don't doubt she'll use that as fuel for the future, both the slow start and the inability to finish (though her fight back to take the second and go up a break in the third was all great). Choy struggled to finish against a lesser player, but she pulled it off. Xu was terrific. Ma was terrific. Blake was mostly pretty good. This team will use this and get better, for sure. But Geller is a problem. Such wide swings in quality of play from being able to beat a Top 30 player to losing in straight sets to someone far below your level--a more consistent level of quality is essential, and we need to see it, or she shouldn't be playing. 

Up next is a home date with USF on Thursday, 2/3. With no Indoor Nationals, we might well see another non-conference match or two scheduled for that window the following weekend, but as of right now, our next match wouldn't be Feb. 18 vs. St. Mary's.

CT, your tennis reporting is tops.
And after reading your posts, I'm thinking Stanford will win the NCAAs this year.
Maybe easily, assuming health and younger players getting used to the college/team game.

Is that crazy?  

P.S.  Gotta believe others feel the same way.

[ColoradoTree]

Probably Wa-hoo or wa-hoo-wa? https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/09/vi...nship-game

Anyway, the way that match unfolded was such a bummer. You can't put that result on Ma by any means. As good as Ma is, she should lose that match. That she pushed it to the bitter end is a great credit to her, and it presages good and exciting things for this group. Blake's loss is disappointing--not that she lost, but that she was every bit Subhash's equal in the first set and then she folded her tent in the second. Again, going in, I would've expected Subhash to win, but I'd hoped for a better effort from Blake. 

But let's be honest here. If Yepifanova doesn't fall apart at the end of the third set, we won that match 4-2 and we're the toast of the tennis world. If Geller isn't an absolutely bewildering no-show for two matches running, we might have won that 4-1 and the cheers are even louder. I don't mind when our players lose to other great players. But it's deeply frustrating when we have another team on the ropes and let them off the hook. And you simply can't have that kind of effort at the 4 spot in the lineup from Geller. She should be darn near an automatic win at that line, and I just don't understand what's going on with her. 

Sigh. Lessons learned, sure. That one will stick in Yepifanova's craw, and I don't doubt she'll use that as fuel for the future, both the slow start and the inability to finish (though her fight back to take the second and go up a break in the third was all great). Choy struggled to finish against a lesser player, but she pulled it off. Xu was terrific. Ma was terrific. Blake was mostly pretty good. This team will use this and get better, for sure. But Geller is a problem. Such wide swings in quality of play from being able to beat a Top 30 player to losing in straight sets to someone far below your level--a more consistent level of quality is essential, and we need to see it, or she shouldn't be playing. 

Up next is a home date with USF on Thursday, 2/3. With no Indoor Nationals, we might well see another non-conference match or two scheduled for that window the following weekend, but as of right now, our next match wouldn't be Feb. 18 vs. St. Mary's.

CT, your tennis reporting is tops.
And after reading your posts, I'm thinking Stanford will win the NCAAs this year.
Maybe easily, assuming health and younger players getting used to the college/team game.

Is that crazy?  

P.S.  Gotta believe others feel the same way.

Ha, well, if it happens, it's certainly not going to be easy! But I'm very high on this team's prospects, the UVA loss notwithstanding.

FYI, we're playing USF right now. We took a disappointingly tight doubles point, and we just clinched the match in singles. Here's the lineup:

1. Ma tied 4-6, 6-2, 0-0
2. Yepifanova won 6-1, 6-4
3. Blake clinched with a 6-2, 6-2 win
4. Houghton led 7-6, 0-0
5. Xu led 7-6, 0-0
6. Choy won 6-1, 6-0

Looks like they'll play out the rest, but that's a 4-0 win that still has me grumpy because I don't think Houghton and Xu should have struggled, and Ma should have had an easier time, too. 

Links to the courts are here (the old live streaming site seems to be defunct): https://pac-12.com/network/stanford-live-stream-8  (that's the link to the scoreboard, but by changing 8 to 1 and 4 and 5, you should be able to watch the different courts with matches still going)

---

Ma squeaks out a win in the match tiebreaker 10-8 to avoid a bad loss. Maria Martinez Vaquero beat Geller at Northwest Regionals 6-4, 6-3, but Yepifanova absolutely steamrolled her in the Round of 16, 6-2, 6-1. She is unquestionably not close to Ma's level, so I'm not thrilled with how that played out. But I suspect that if they'd played out the third set, it would've looked more like Ma's 6-2 second set win. Something like 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 shows a hiccup that you moved past and then dominated, so I'll try and refrain from reading too much into it. 

5-0 Stanford with Houghton up 3-1 and Xu up 3-0 in their respective second sets.

[ColoradoTree]

Probably Wa-hoo or wa-hoo-wa? https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/09/vi...nship-game

Anyway, the way that match unfolded was such a bummer. You can't put that result on Ma by any means. As good as Ma is, she should lose that match. That she pushed it to the bitter end is a great credit to her, and it presages good and exciting things for this group. Blake's loss is disappointing--not that she lost, but that she was every bit Subhash's equal in the first set and then she folded her tent in the second. Again, going in, I would've expected Subhash to win, but I'd hoped for a better effort from Blake. 

But let's be honest here. If Yepifanova doesn't fall apart at the end of the third set, we won that match 4-2 and we're the toast of the tennis world. If Geller isn't an absolutely bewildering no-show for two matches running, we might have won that 4-1 and the cheers are even louder. I don't mind when our players lose to other great players. But it's deeply frustrating when we have another team on the ropes and let them off the hook. And you simply can't have that kind of effort at the 4 spot in the lineup from Geller. She should be darn near an automatic win at that line, and I just don't understand what's going on with her. 

Sigh. Lessons learned, sure. That one will stick in Yepifanova's craw, and I don't doubt she'll use that as fuel for the future, both the slow start and the inability to finish (though her fight back to take the second and go up a break in the third was all great). Choy struggled to finish against a lesser player, but she pulled it off. Xu was terrific. Ma was terrific. Blake was mostly pretty good. This team will use this and get better, for sure. But Geller is a problem. Such wide swings in quality of play from being able to beat a Top 30 player to losing in straight sets to someone far below your level--a more consistent level of quality is essential, and we need to see it, or she shouldn't be playing. 

Up next is a home date with USF on Thursday, 2/3. With no Indoor Nationals, we might well see another non-conference match or two scheduled for that window the following weekend, but as of right now, our next match wouldn't be Feb. 18 vs. St. Mary's.

CT, your tennis reporting is tops.
And after reading your posts, I'm thinking Stanford will win the NCAAs this year.
Maybe easily, assuming health and younger players getting used to the college/team game.

Is that crazy?  

P.S.  Gotta believe others feel the same way.

Ha, well, if it happens, it's certainly not going to be easy! But I'm very high on this team's prospects, the UVA loss notwithstanding.

FYI, we're playing USF right now. We took a disappointingly tight doubles point, and we just clinched the match in singles. Here's the lineup:

1. Ma tied 4-6, 6-2, 0-0
2. Yepifanova won 6-1, 6-4
3. Blake clinched with a 6-2, 6-2 win
4. Houghton led 7-6, 0-0
5. Xu led 7-6, 0-0
6. Choy won 6-1, 6-0

Looks like they'll play out the rest, but that's a 4-0 win that still has me grumpy because I don't think Houghton and Xu should have struggled, and Ma should have had an easier time, too. 

Links to the courts are here (the old live streaming site seems to be defunct): https://pac-12.com/network/stanford-live-stream-8  (that's the link to the scoreboard, but by changing 8 to 1 and 4 and 5, you should be able to watch the different courts with matches still going)

---

Ma squeaks out a win in the match tiebreaker 10-8 to avoid a bad loss. Maria Martinez Vaquero beat Geller at Northwest Regionals 6-4, 6-3, but Yepifanova absolutely steamrolled her in the Round of 16, 6-2, 6-1. She is unquestionably not close to Ma's level, so I'm not thrilled with how that played out. But I suspect that if they'd played out the third set, it would've looked more like Ma's 6-2 second set win. Something like 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 shows a hiccup that you moved past and then dominated, so I'll try and refrain from reading too much into it. 

5-0 Stanford with Houghton up 3-1 and Xu up 3-0 in their respective second sets.

[ColoradoTree]

Stanford ended up cruising from there to make it 7-0. Xu served up a bagel in her second set, and that always puts a first-set tiebreaker in a different light. Whatever the reasons for the struggle, you figured out a way through it and turned it on from there. Houghton's second set was closer, so her 7-5, 6-4 win tells a different story. 

But however we got there, we got there, and a 7-0 win is still a 7-0 win. Next up (unless there's an added match over the Indoor Nationals window) is St. Mary's on Friday, February 18th. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see, say, UOP or Cal Poly or SJSU come to Taube next weekend. It's good for everyone--everyone gets more matches, and more matches is always good. And there is a pretty low cost to the team that's coming in expecting to lose, because they won't be punished in the rankings for it. Plus, you get better by playing good players, right?

[ColoradoTree]

Stanford ended up cruising from there to make it 7-0. Xu served up a bagel in her second set, and that always puts a first-set tiebreaker in a different light. Whatever the reasons for the struggle, you figured out a way through it and turned it on from there. Houghton's second set was closer, so her 7-5, 6-4 win tells a different story. 

But however we got there, we got there, and a 7-0 win is still a 7-0 win. Next up (unless there's an added match over the Indoor Nationals window) is St. Mary's on Friday, February 18th. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see, say, UOP or Cal Poly or SJSU come to Taube next weekend. It's good for everyone--everyone gets more matches, and more matches is always good. And there is a pretty low cost to the team that's coming in expecting to lose, because they won't be punished in the rankings for it. Plus, you get better by playing good players, right?