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Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-15-2018

A matchup worthy of a final in the Round of 16, between a 15th-seeded Stanford team and the top-ranked but 2nd-seeded team in the country?  Where have I heard that before?  Oh, yeah, 2016, when we beat Florida in the Round of 16 on the way to a national championship.  Let's do it again, shall we?  This time, it's North Carolina as the 2 seed standing in our way.  The match is Thursday at 9:00 a.m. Pacific/Noon Eastern.  

Didn't we play them last year?  

Indeed. Last year, UNC was also the #2 seed and we were  #7, and we met in the quarterfinals. We won the doubles point behind a 6-1 win from Arbuthnott/Davidson at #1 (over the 4th-ranked duo in the country) and a 6-1 win from Doyle/Lord at #2 (Higuchi/Lampl were getting smoked at #3 when the doubles point was clinched).  In singles, we lost at #1 (Doyle to Carter, neither of whom is still around, so leave that aside), then Davidson beat Aney at #3 to put Stanford up 2-1, Lord stretched the lead to 3-1 by beating Daavettila at #2 (it went three sets, but Lord ran away with it in the third), Lampl lost a heartbreaker at #4 to Graham (7-5 in the third, in a match where Lampl had been up a break in the third) to make it 3-2, and then Arbuthnott clinched over Makenna Jones, winning 6-2 in her third set.  Surprisingly, Higuchi lost her first set to Ouellet-Pizer in a tiebreaker, but then turned on the jets, winning the second set 6-2 right before the match was abandoned.  (She started late because the match was played indoors due to weather, and there were limited courts.)  

UNC's lineup is much-changed, however.  Makenna Jones has jumped from #5 last year to #1 now (climbing the lineup gradually throughout this season), Daavettila plays #3, freshman Alle Sanford plays #2, and Aney now plays #5. Graham and Ouellet-Pizer still play at 4 and 6, respectively, so only Higuchi will have a rematch from last year.   

So how good are they?

Super good.  The #1 team in the country according to the ITA, the #2 team according to the USTA, the ITA Indoors national champions from earlier this season, and ACC tournament champions.  They have the #2 seed because of a head to head loss to Vanderbilt, but like Stanford, all three of their losses have come to excellent teams: Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Duke.  Their resume is unquestionably better.  That said, as noted in an earlier thread, Stanford might actually be more talented.  Stanford has higher UTRs at 4 of 6 singles positions (1, 2, 5, and 6--the biggest advantages are Lord at 2 and Higuchi at 6) and trails so narrowly at #3 and #4 that those matches are essentially coin flips. 

It's an absolute shame this match happens so early in the tournament. But such is life. We can blame the NCAA for not seeding Stanford higher, but ultimately, everyone knows the criteria for the ITA rankings, and everyone knows those rankings largely determine the seeds. If we played ITA Kick-Off Weekend and then National Indoors, we'd usually be ranked and seeded better. 

Lineups

Note: these are the lineups UNC has used in the NCAA tournament so far, so they're probably good, but UNC has done a lot of shuffling this year, mixing and matching doubles partners and moving singles players up and down the lineup

Singles

1. #15 Gordon vs. #2 Makenna Jones
2. #40 Lord vs. #26 Alle Sanford
3. #93 Lampl vs. #46 Sara Daavettila
4. #43 Arbuthnott vs. #95 Alexa Graham
5. #96 Shin vs. #85 Jessie Aney
6. #102 Higuchi vs. #119 Chloe Ouellet-Pizer

Doubles

1. #3 Arbuthnott/Gordon (8-4 in duals) vs. #2 Aney/Graham (18-6)
2. #84 Lampl/Yee (15-2) vs. #33 Daavettila/Sanford (13-7)
3. Lord/Shin (11-1) vs. Jones/Akkerman (14-3)

Going by the ITA rankings, we'd be favored in just two singles matches, Courts 4 and 6. But by UTR, we're favored at 1, 2, 5, and 6, and we trail narrowly at 3 and 4.  

In the matches this year where UNC has struggled, the most common reasons why are: (1) losing the doubles point; (2) Jessie Aney losing at 4 or 5; and (3) Alle Sanford losing at 1 or 2.  We know Aney will play 5 and Sanford will play 2, so that bodes well for Lord and Shin, respectively. So, there's your path: get the doubles point and singles wins on Courts 2, 5, and 6.  (FYI, in those closer matches--both wins and losses--Jones was 9-2, Sanford was 3-9, Daavettila was 10-3, Graham was 11-2, Aney was 5-7, and Ouellet-Pizer was 7-5.)  

Predictions

I think Stanford wins a very, very close one, 4-3.  Lots of ways to get there, but I think it happens through Stanford getting the doubles point behind wins at #2 and #3, and then getting singles wins from Lord, Shin, and Higuchi.  But your guess is as good as where a 4th point comes from in singles if we need it--Gordon is a slight favorite, but Jones has excelled in close matches against good opponents this year. I'm not going to bet against Arbuthnott and Lampl, either, but their opponents have been similarly good when it counts. The only thing I'm really confident about, though, is that it'll be close.  
   
How can we follow along?

Live stats are available here: http://statbroadcast.com/events/central.php?tid=778

And you can access video of each court here: http://www.wakeforestsports.com/ncaatennis/

Here's the Stanford preview of the matchup: http://gostanford.com/news/2018/5/15/womens-tennis-here-comes-a-test.aspx
As for common opponents, there are just two: Michigan and Vanderbilt.  Both teams beat Michigan with relative ease (Stanford won 4-0; UNC won 4-1), and both lost to Vanderbilt, though UNC's 4-3 loss was in Chapel Hill and Stanford's 7-0 loss (without Lord, it must be noted) was in Nashville.  

Not too many useful individual comparisons, either.  This past fall in tournament play, Arbuthnott lost to Jones in three sets, and Arbuthnott/Gordon beat Daavettila/Sanford 11-9 in a match tiebreaker (when you split the first two sets in some formats, you play a super tiebreaker to determine the winner-- the first to ten points wins, and you have to win by two), but those are the only Stanford-UNC results this year.

Given the recent discussion of UTR, even though Stanford has the highest UTR total from its six players, I was interested in how we stack up against other top teams as those lineups will actually be rolled out. Here's how we look: 

* 6-0 over Georgia Tech
* 6-0 over UCLA
* 5-1 over South Carolina (Shin behind)
* 4-2 over Vanderbilt (Gordon and Lord behind)
* 4-1-1 over Georgia (Lord tied; Higuchi behind; but it's close)
* 3-3 vs. Texas (Gordon, Lord, and Lampl behind)
* 3-3 vs. Duke (Lampl, Arbuthnott, and Shin behind)
* 2-4 vs. Pepperdine (only Gordon and Higuchi ahead)

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - Spiny_Norman - 05-15-2018

Excellent work as always, CT. One more relevant item - the weather.  The NCAA again has chosen to play in the South which is subject to rain and severe weather this time of year. Forecast for Thursday in Winston Salem - humid, with rain and a thunderstorm. Stanford vs. UNC may once again end up indoors. Bummer for the remote fans when the matches move indoors because the video set up is usually less comprehensive if video is available at all.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-15-2018

FYI, if you try and follow along with live video, Stanford will be playing at the Leighton Family Courts, not the Lower Courts.  (If they end up indoors, I'm not sure about whether there will be live video, so we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.)

Wake has a lovely tennis facility, by the way. They built it with an eye towards hosting NCAAs as well as hosting the ATP's Winston-Salem Open.  As configured for NCAA play, there are 13 outdoor courts (it goes down to 12 when they're resurfaced and a couple are spread out for ATP tournament play).  They also have a very nice indoor facility, with 8 courts, so on days when it rains, they'll still be able to get mostly all of the matches in.  (If you recall last year's tournament, hosted by Georgia in Athens, we played our quarterfinal against UNC in Athens indoors due to rain, but because there were just four courts, other quarterfinalists had to drive to Atlanta to play in Georgia Tech's indoor facility, which also only had four courts, and then Stanford drew the short end of the stick for their semifinal match and had to drive to Atlanta to play Ohio State. That was not exactly ideal, so I'm very pleased that there are eight indoor courts at Wake.)  For competitive reasons, I'm not excited about playing North Carolina there (or Duke, should we get that far), but it's easy to see why the NCAA picked this facility. 

FYI, next year's tournament will be at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, then at Oklahoma State in Stillwater in 2020, then back to the USTA National Campus in 2021, and then at the University of Illinois in 2019.  Each presents their own competitive concerns, but Illinois presents the least.
(05-15-2018, 02:26 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  Excellent work as always, CT. One more relevant item - the weather.  The NCAA again has chosen to play in the South which is subject to rain and severe weather this time of year. Forecast for Thursday in Winston Salem - humid, with rain and a thunderstorm. Stanford vs. UNC may once again end up indoors. Bummer for the remote fans when the matches move indoors because the video set up is usually less comprehensive if video is available at all.

I completely agree with you on the frustration of trying to follow matches remotely that are played indoors.  Some schools are better than others, but it remains to be seen how good Wake's setup is.  If we do move indoors, then odds might tilt more towards UNC, who won Indoor Nationals earlier this spring, whereas we struggled in our two indoor matches this year. (Though we won both indoor matches in last year's NCAA tournament, in the QFs against UNC and the semis against Ohio State, so it's entirely possible I'm overthinking this.)

You know, if the NCAA is going to continue having the tennis championships in places where severe weather is possible or even probable, then Stanford's argument for not playing the ITA Kick-Off Weekend and then National Indoors gets a bit weaker.  As I understand it, Lele's rationale for opting out of National Indoors (and its feeder event, the Kick-Off Weekend) was based, at least in part, on the fact that NCAA titles are decided outdoors, so she'd rather schedule tough non-conference matchups and play them outdoors rather than have an indoors tournament.  Also, over the course of the year, our team seems to improve at a faster rate than other teams, so avoiding early-season tough matchups may have figured in, too.  (Also, the team flies to Hawaii every year, so some of the tennis budget may be tied up there.)  And from the outside looking in, I wonder if limiting the physical toll on her players over the course of the year factors in as well, so they're in peak condition for NCAAs and not a little tired from an overly tough schedule.  Fair reasons, and I have to qualify even the mildest criticism of Coach Forood with recognition that whatever quibbles you have with her scheduling approach and its effect on our seeding, she has won the NCAA tournament seeded 8th, 12th, and 15th, so her approach has worked.  

But.  If you're going to possibly play a couple of NCAA tournament matches indoors, and you will likely end up playing tough matches against improving UW and Wazzu teams indoors, then it's not unreasonable to say that some additional preparation on indoor courts would be a good hedge against bad weather in the NCAAs.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - oldalum - 05-15-2018

We last played in the ITA National Indoor Tournament in 2011. My impression when we stopped was that the missed weekday class time was the primary reason for the decision, and that it was the players' wish to stop (I don't think the coaches would care). The Round of 16 is on Thursday, and I guess that usually means leaving on Tuesday if they are going to have a practice session on the tournament courts on Wednesday.) I remember respecting that decision for that reason, and wishing we weren't penalized so much for it. But I can't remember where I heard that, and it could be wrong.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-16-2018

(05-15-2018, 07:40 PM)oldalum Wrote:  We last played in the ITA National Indoor Tournament in 2011. My impression when we stopped was that the missed weekday class time was the primary reason for the decision, and that it was the players' wish to stop (I don't think the coaches would care). The Round of 16 is on Thursday, and I guess that usually means leaving on Tuesday if they are going to have a practice session on the tournament courts on Wednesday.) I remember respecting that decision for that reason, and wishing we weren't penalized so much for it. But I can't remember where I heard that, and it could be wrong.

Could well be! I'm basing my understanding on a collection of half-remembered statements by folks now combined with some guesses as to why Lele would want to do it, especially given that the program hasn't made much of an effort to replace those matches throughout the year in the schedule.  If you want to skip an early-season tournament over two weekends, fine, but then add a few more matches.  Yes, we scheduled Florida, Vanderbilt, Texas, TCU, and Pepperdine this year, but the top-ranked teams play more (and play more good teams) than we do.  

We have a lot of one-match or no-match weekends: (1) we played only San Jose State during ITA Kick-Off Weekend; (2) we played only St. Mary's during Indoor Nationals; (3) we didn't play at all the weekend before ITA Kick-Off Weekend, when many other programs squeeze in a match to get ready; (4) we only played Vanderbilt on the Nashville road trip, when there are a number of good programs within a few hours' drive; and (5) we didn't have another match scheduled the weekends where we played Oregon or Cal, or the weekend when we were scheduled to play Pepperdine.  There are opportunities to beef up your schedule just by filling out the remaining weekends on the calendar, while still opting out of a tournament that would require you to miss much of a week of classes.  

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Lele's rationale for opting out of Kick-Off Weekend/Indoor Nationals may well have been to avoid missing class time, but there are still lots of holes on the schedule that wouldn't involve missing class time, and those are still going unfilled, so I think there has to be more at play than just wanting to avoid missing class time.  I know we've made more of an effort in recent years to get a couple more tough matches on the schedule (adding Vanderbilt and usually another team to our annual matchup with Florida), but we could certainly do more.  (I'd love to add annual matches with Duke and UNC to our schedule, for example. Beating them is massive for your ranking, but losing to teams that good barely hurts you at all.)  

Of course, I could say all of that to Lele, and she could quite rightly respond, "what does it matter?"  And she'd be right--when the program standard is national titles, do you really care if you win it as a 1 seed or as a 15 seed?  Everyone knows we're a threat to win regardless of our seed.  Heck, just look at the last several years:

2017: lost in NCAA final to Florida as a 7 seed (beating the 10, 2, and 3 seeds before losing to the 1 seed)
2016: won NCAA championship as a 15 seed (beating the 1, 10, 6, and 12 seeds along the way)
2015: lost in NCAA QF to Georgia as a 14 seed (beat the 3 seed, lost to the 6)
2014: lost in NCAA SF to UNC as an 11 seed (beat the 3 and 6 seeds, lost to the 7)
2013: won NCAA championship as a 12 seed (beating the 5, 4, 1, and 3 seeds along the way)
2012: lost in NCAA QF to USC as a 5 seed (beat the 12, lost to the 4)
2011: lost in NCAA final to Florida as a 2 seed (beat the 15, 7, and 6 seeds before losing to the 1)
2010: won NCAA championship as an 8 seed (beating the 9, 1, 5, and 3 seeds along the way)

So, Lele has some pretty good data to point to when arguing that Stanford doesn't need to schedule additional matches to boost our ranking--we do just fine without it.  Maybe we would have advanced a little further in a couple of those years, but "having a deep NCAA run" isn't the program expectation.  It's winning.  Every year.  So who cares if you play a top-ranked team a round or two earlier than you would otherwise?  

(For the record, I care a little bit, because if you can make your path to the title a little bit easier, then you should always do that, but that underseeding hasn't determined our NCAA fate the last several years.  In the last 8 seasons, we've beaten a higher seed in the NCAA tournament in 6 of those seasons, and in the other two, we lived up to our seeding and didn't get upset, at least.)
A couple pieces worth a read:

* A profile of UNC's Makenna Jones, in which her loss to Arbuthnott in last year's NCAAs features as a catalyst for her to improve, and the UNC coach acknowledges Stanford being underseeded and previews the Round of 16 match with Stanford: https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/article.asp?id=264093221&sessionid=2BBC48510F3A10DC. (I didn't know her mom played at Stanford!)

* The College Tennis Today preview of the Round of 16 matches: https://www.collegetennistoday.com/item/1754-ncaa-women-s-sweet-16-preview.html.  Bobby Knight calls it the "match of the day" and predicts a 4-3 match with the teams splitting the six singles matches and UNC going through on the strength of the doubles point.  (He thinks Lord, Arbuthnott, and Higuchi will get wins for Stanford in singles.)  While he acknowledges that Stanford is a favorite on paper (i.e., per individual UTRs), he still mostly sticks to the ITA rankings in predicting singles winners, going with the lower-ranked player only in Lord's case (and given last year and her preseason #7 ranking this year, and her form against Michigan, that's totally fair, even setting aside her UTR advantage). His singles predictions are entirely possible, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it shake out that way (my belief that Shin should beat Aney could easily be overcome by the fact that this is Shin's biggest match so far in her career and Aney is a junior and more seasoned), but I just have a feeling we're going to pull off doubles wins at 2 and 3 and take that point.  I really want Gordon to win--there's a nice boost of confidence for everyone else when your top dog beats their top dog--though as Jones hasn't lost at #1 all year against a challenging schedule, you can't count on it.  Especially if the match has to be played indoors and Shin and Higuchi go on last, we'll need good performances at 1, 3, and 4 to keep the match in reach to give Shin and Higuchi a chance to finish it.  (I'm confident of that, really. I don't know how the matches will end up for Arbuthnott and Lampl, but they don't quit, so those things are at least going into a third set.)

As for the other Round of 16 action, he picks (1) Vanderbilt to roll over (16) Miami, (10) South Carolina to beat (7) Georgia 4-2, (3) Duke to beat (14) Northwestern 4-3, (6) Texas to beat (11) Texas Tech 4-2, (13) Pepperdine to shutout (4) Georgia Tech 4-0, (12) UCLA to upset (5) Ole Miss 4-3, and in the unseeded matchup, Florida State to beat Tulsa 4-2.  So, if Stanford wins and his predictions are otherwise right, we'd see Stanford playing South Carolina in the quarterfinals, and on the other side of the bracket, an all-California quarterfinal between Pepperdine and UCLA.  (For the record, I also think UCLA and Pepperdine will post "upsets" and beat their respective opponents. Could see the Georgia-South Carolina match going either way, and I don't think Northwestern will be that competitive vs. Duke, but I think the Big Ten just wasn't very good this year.)

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - Spiny_Norman - 05-16-2018

Wow, Makenna Jones' Stanford roots run deep! Her mother Tami Whitlinger was an All American at Stanford. Her aunt Teri Whitlinger (Tami's twin) also played at Stanford. And her great-uncle John Whitlinger is the retired Stanford men's tennis coach, a former All American Stanford player and is in the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. I'm sorry that the Whitlinger dynasty at Stanford could not continue for another generation.

Stanford AD reports that the team is 16-3 in its prior 19 NCAA matches as a lower seed. That is an absolutely amazing record.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - stupac2 - 05-16-2018

(05-16-2018, 11:08 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  Stanford AD reports that the team is 16-3 in its prior 19 NCAA matches as a lower seed. That is an absolutely amazing record.

Almost too amazing, makes it seem like we're consistently under-seeded.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - Spiny_Norman - 05-16-2018

(05-16-2018, 11:23 AM)stupac2 Wrote:  
(05-16-2018, 11:08 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  Stanford AD reports that the team is 16-3 in its prior 19 NCAA matches as a lower seed. That is an absolutely amazing record.

Almost too amazing, makes it seem like we're consistently under-seeded.

No, I am sure it is something else. :-)

Stupac, is your signature line a message for the Committee on seeding Stanford?

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - stupac2 - 05-16-2018

(05-16-2018, 11:29 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  Stupac, is your signature line a message for the Committee on seeding Stanford?

Just came across it one day and thought it was a good signature for a message board.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-16-2018

Hey Spiny, we have even greater concern about the match being moved indoors due to weather.  Apparently, if it's raining, one of the two matches scheduled for that window will be played indoors at Wake Forest, while the other will be moved to the backup site.  The backup site?  UNC.  One would hope that the organizers wouldn't give UNC such a competitive boost due to weather, but I don't know that there's a rule in place to prevent such a thing.  The higher seed generally stays put, though, so that'll be UNC, as the other matchup in our window is Georgia-South Carolina. Crossing my fingers that the rain holds off, but it's not looking good....

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-17-2018

They have officially scheduled our match to take place indoors at Wake, so at least we're not going to UNC.  The problem is that while the live video works just fine, the live scoring doesn't work (yet) for indoor courts, so we'll be heavily reliant on team twitter accounts for updates.  Make sure you're following @NCAATennis in addition to the team accounts, @StanfordWTennis and @UNC_wtennis, to keep sort of up to date. (The NCAA account is updating every 10 minutes or so.)

It is ridiculous that a NCAA event can happen in this day and age without live scoring. I don't care if you don't have live scoring capabilities for indoor courts--get some student volunteers to signal the score at each game to one person uploading them to the website.  Point-by-point scoring is preferable, but to have no information available at all is absurd.  Here's hoping they figure it out by the time our match starts.  Apparently, they're working on it?  

Duke is rolling all over Northwestern in the first match, by the way.  Took the doubles point, has won all six first sets in singles, and doesn't look like they're letting their foot off the gas. EDIT: Northwestern is fighting, but Duke won the matches at #2 and #5 easily, so there are four matches left and Northwestern needs all four to pull off the upset. EDIT AGAIN: Didn't get it. Duke wins 4-0 and moves onto the quarterfinals to play the winner of Texas-Texas Tech.

Texas-Texas Tech has started late because they're being sent to UNC to play, so they're just in the middle of the doubles point now; Georgia-South Carolina will go on after they're done there, but not before 12:30pm local time. EDIT: Texas Tech won the doubles point, which is a little surprising. UT is strongly favored at the top 3 singles spots, Tech is favored at 4 and 5, and Texas is a slight favorite at 6, which could prove the decider.

Our match will start as expected, at 12 Eastern/9 Pacific, but indoors.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-17-2018

Doubles about to get started!  Here we go!

Live scoring appears to be working, so here's the link to that: http://statbroadcast.com/events/central.php?tid=778
Also, live video works and has a module on the side with live scoring as well, if you prefer that route (our matches are on Courts 1, 2, and 3): http://www.wakeforestsports.com/ncaatennis/
On serve so far on Courts 2 and 3, at 1-1 apiece.  Arbuthnott/Gordon are up an early break, 2-0.  It sounds loud in there.
Doubles update:

Court 1: Arbuthnott/Gordon lead 4-3 (on serve)
Court 2: Lampl/Yee trail 3-4 (down a break; so many breaks of serve in this one on both sides!)
Court 3: Lord/Shin trail 3-5

Stanford now to serve on Court 3 to stay in the match. We need to break back (yet again) on Court 2 if we want to stay in this doubles point....
UNC holds at Court 2 (the first time in a while), and Stanford trails there 5-3 and will serve to stay in the match.  Over on Court 3, Stanford held to get back to 5-4 down, but UNC will serve for that match now. We need a break....
Lampl/Yee fall 6-3 on Court 2, but with UNC serving for the doubles point on Court 3, we broke and leveled at 5-5!  

Court 1: Arbuthnott/Gordon lead 5-4 (on serve)
Court 2: Lampl/Yee lost 6-3
Court 3: Lord/Shin tied 5-5

Shin serving now, but we're quickly down 40-0....
Shin is broken and UNC will serve (again) for the doubles point on Court 3.
Arbuthnott/Gordon win 6-4 at Court 1!  But UNC just one point away on Court 3....
Ugh. Lord/Shin lose 7-5 on Court 3, and UNC leads Stanford 1-0 after doubles.  We've done this before this season and come back to win, but not against a team this good.  Shoot.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - BobK - 05-17-2018

So close.   But the live stats are great.  Also twitter updating often

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - StanfordMatt - 05-17-2018

It really stinks having to play these matches indoors seemingly every year. It's such a different game and such a big advantage to teams on the east coast who are used to it. What's the point of having the ITA Indoor Championships in February if the NCAA Championships are going to be played indoors as well???

CT - you mentioned in an earlier post the host sites for the next few years and there's no mention of Stanford. Hopefully this doesn't mean we've been taken out of the rotation permanently. The last time Stanford hosted the final rounds in tennis was 2011.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - qwerty49 - 05-17-2018

Serving didn't seem to be much of an advantage in that match on court 3.

That last game, ugh.  We fought back a bit from 40-0 -- but whoever was in the forehand court for us got passed twice from the baseline, once on each side.

(05-17-2018, 09:03 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote:  Doubles about to get started!  Here we go!

Live scoring appears to be working, so here's the link to that:  http://statbroadcast.com/events/central.php?tid=778
Also, live video works and has a module on the side with live scoring as well, if you prefer that route (our matches are on Courts 1, 2, and 3): http://www.wakeforestsports.com/ncaatennis/
On serve so far on Courts 2 and 3, at 1-1 apiece.  Arbuthnott/Gordon are up an early break, 2-0.  It sounds loud in there.
Doubles update:

Court 1: Arbuthnott/Gordon lead 4-3 (on serve)
Court 2: Lampl/Yee trail 3-4 (down a break; so many breaks of serve in this one on both sides!)
Court 3: Lord/Shin trail 3-5

Stanford now to serve on Court 3 to stay in the match.  We need to break back (yet again) on Court 2 if we want to stay in this doubles point....
UNC holds at Court 2 (the first time in a while), and Stanford trails there 5-3 and will serve to stay in the match.  Over on Court 3, Stanford held to get back to 5-4 down, but UNC will serve for that match now. We need a break....
Lampl/Yee fall 6-3 on Court 2, but with UNC serving for the doubles point on Court 3, we broke and leveled at 5-5!  

Court 1: Arbuthnott/Gordon lead 5-4 (on serve)
Court 2: Lampl/Yee lost 6-3
Court 3: Lord/Shin tied 5-5

Shin serving now, but we're quickly down 40-0....
Shin is broken and UNC will serve (again) for the doubles point on Court 3.
Arbuthnott/Gordon win 6-4 at Court 1!  But UNC just one point away on Court 3....
Ugh. Lord/Shin lose 7-5 on Court 3, and UNC leads Stanford 1-0 after doubles.  We've done this before this season and come back to win, but not against a team this good.  Shoot.


RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-17-2018

OK, time to regroup.  Singles is starting now, and as noted earlier, our best opportunities for singles wins are probably at #2 and #6, we have slight UTR advantages at #1 and #5, and we have razor-thin disadvantages on #3 and #4--basically a coin flip on those courts.  Here's hoping Gordon and Arbuthnott take that momentum and translate it into singles, and Lord and Shin fuel their doubles frustration and get a win.  We can do this!

If it helps, when Stanford won the title as a 15 seed two years ago, we lost the doubles point all the time, including in the NCAA title match vs. Oklahoma State.  Over the last 3 years, Stanford is 12-5 in matches where they lost the doubles point.
(05-17-2018, 09:53 AM)StanfordMatt Wrote:  It really stinks having to play these matches indoors seemingly every year. It's such a different game and such a big advantage to teams on the east coast who are used to it. What's the point of having the ITA Indoor Championships in February if the NCAA Championships are going to be played indoors as well???

CT - you mentioned in an earlier post the host sites for the next few years and there's no mention of Stanford. Hopefully this doesn't mean we've been taken out of the rotation permanently. The last time Stanford hosted the final rounds in tennis was 2011.

Right, no Stanford in the mix for the next few years, at least.  It's possible that we could host again, but I think the new USTA National Campus in Orlando is going to get the honors regularly moving forward (they get it twice in the next 4-year cycle).  I'm not positive about this, but I believe indoor capacity is a big consideration, and Stanford's lack of an indoor tennis facility hurts in that regard.  (Of course, the weather at Stanford is usually perfect, so an indoor tennis facility with 6-8 courts seems like a waste of money for the Athletic Department.)  Given the focus on reduction of travel, and the fact that most teams are concentrated out east, it seems like a fair bet that it'll mostly be held in the Eastern and Central time zones moving forward.  I don't know if there are good indoor tennis facilities we could use (and where we could hook up video/live scoring for each court), but having that backup plan would be helpful.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - StanfordMatt - 05-17-2018

Ironically, it rained when we hosted in 2006 and matches were relocated to indoor courts in SF. I drove up to watch; not very convenient. That said, the percentages say you have a good chance of clear weather in Palo Alto in May.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - ColoradoTree - 05-17-2018

Singles update:

Court 1: Gordon leads 3-1
Court 2: Lord leads 4-2 
Court 3: Lampl trails 2-3 (broke back to level, but was broken again)
Court 4: Arbuthnott leads 3-2 (was down a break, but just won two in a row; on serve)
Court 5: Shin leads 3-2 (up a break) 
Court 6: Higuchi leads 4-1
Court 1: Gordon leads 5-3 
Court 2: Lord leads 6-4, 1-0 (up a break)
Court 3: Lampl trails 4-5 (it is still true that no one wants to hold serve in this one)
Court 4: Arbuthnott leads 6-3, 0-0 
Court 5: Shin leads 6-3, 0-0 
Court 6: Higuchi leads 6-1, 1-1

Really nice display from Higuchi so far.  Arbuthnott struggled early (which is not unusual for her), but seems to have found her footing.  Lord started off very nicely, came back to Earth, but held when she needed to take the first set. Arbuthnott was serving for the set up 5-3, went down 0-40, but won 4 straight points to take the set.  Shin started strong, but gave a break back, but charged through the end of the first set.  Gordon was up 3-0, but Jones got it back on serve before they traded 4 breaks in a row to keep Gordon in the lead.  

But we need four points and we got four first sets, with a lead in a fifth match.  We're playing really well right now overall.

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - BigEasyCard - 05-17-2018

Lord, Arbuthnott, Shin, and Higuchi all win their first set.  Gordon up 5-3.  Lampl down 4-5.

Geaux Cardinal!

RE: Women's Tennis: Round of 16 vs. North Carolina - StanfordMatt - 05-17-2018

Lampl's opponent has resorted to hitting some of her second serves underhand. Lampl should be able to take advantage but something as unconventional as that can mess with your head sometimes.