Women's Tennis 2024 - Printable Version
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RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-17-2024
(05-17-2024, 12:47 PM)Sakibomb25 Wrote: ColoradoTree - real talk here. It’s the beginning of the season. Where on the ladder would you place Yu? Would it have been preposterous to place her at No. 4, and move everyone else down?
Also, do you think Blake’s body of work justified her at No. 1 this year? I know at the beginning of the year everyone was scratching their heads at Blake being above Ma and Yepifanova.
I mean, I was super skeptical about Blake playing above Ma and Yepifanova this year, but at a certain point, her results warranted her being there. So I'm not super mad about that. She's been playing so well. She's sort of earned her role there over the course of the season. You can justify it based on results, for sure. You could also justify Ma at 1 and Blake at 2, but I'm not ultimately all that mad about this. And now that I've calmed down some, I didn't really expect Blake to pull off a win today against Vidmanova. You should never really be in the position of expecting a win at 1, you know? It's best on best, and if you're counting on Court 1, that's a scary place to be.
That's where our depth let us down massively today. Our depth was insane on paper and should've been our strength like it has been in the past. And to your point about Yu's place in the lineup, maybe we'd be in a different place if the 4-6 spots looked different. But it's also really hard to say based on how they looked at the time that Yu should have been playing higher than anyone else. She'd had a decently long stretch of disappointing results coming in, whereas Hui came in blazing hot, so it's entirely reasonable to initially slot Hui above Yu, and Hui didn't really do anything to lose her spot. Blokhina has been a relatively weak and streaky #4, and one of my hopes for next season is that we see a fitter, more consistent Blokhina become a much more reliable result.
Lele put a lot of faith in Valencia Xu in keeping her in the lineup this year when I didn't think it was warranted. And maybe some of that was having heard from Yu that she was gone no matter what. I don't know if playing every day at #6 would have been enough for Yu, but maybe it would have been. As the season went on, if I were head coach, I would've made the switch and made Yu the 6. But like we've said, perhaps Lele knew that wouldn't have mattered in her decision to transfer, so she gave the playing time to the person she hoped would round into form when it mattered. And Xu clearly didn't.
So, to answer your question, I don't think I would've put Yu at 4 because I don't think she earned the #4 line at that point in the season. If she'd come in as hot as Hui did, then sure, maybe. But I don't think Lele was wrong to put Blokhina above that group of Xu-Hui-Yu, and I don't think Lele was wrong to put Hui above Yu. I do think Xu's performance in matches showed us that Lele was wrong to put Xu above Yu.
Ultimately, we had a lineup that was national championship-caliber. And that lineup didn't deliver when it mattered.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Jamesy - 05-17-2024
Strange NCAA tournament so far. With Michigan's loss after ours, the #1-4 seeds are now all out and a good chance it's the #5-8 seeds in the semis.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-17-2024
Jamesy, that’s part of why I’m so disappointed. The path had cleared, and you could potentially have an easier match in the semifinal and final than you did in the quarter. It takes a lot of hard work plus luck to win a title, and at least in the other matches, the luck had turned our way.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Jamesy - 05-19-2024
Texas A&m defeats Georgia for the title.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-20-2024
Singles gets going today (all times PT):
11:30am: #25 Blake vs. #22 Elizabeth Scotty (UNC)
1:30pm: #29 Yepifanova vs. (4) Kari Miller (Michigan)
2pm: (6) Ma vs. #58 Reilly Tran (UNC)
Doubles is tomorrow:
Ma/Yepifanova vs. (5-8) Brown/Miller (Michigan)
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Lorcan - 05-20-2024
Absolutely brilliant from Yepifanova today as she sweeps aside the 4 seed, Kari Miller 6-1 6-2.
Connie Ma is currently live on ESPN for me, for those who might be interested in watching.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-21-2024
Ma also won, 7-6, 6-2, so she and Yepifanova will be in the second round today, with winners earning the title of All-American:
11:00am: (6) Ma vs. #45 Mia Kupres (Texas A&M)
11:30am: #29 Yepifanova vs. #41 Alexandra Vecic (UGA)
Live scoring here: https://ioncourt.com/tournaments/664a37133610b8e652548bd2/upcoming
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - oldalum - 05-21-2024
our opponents have been playing a match every day. (slight) advantage Stanford! we're fresher!
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-21-2024
Ma is in the final 16 as she beats Kupres, 6-1, 6-3. She was already an All-American due to having been seeded in this tournament, but if she weren't, she would've achieved that status with this win.
Yepifanova lost her first set to Vecic in a tiebreaker, so we'll see how the rest goes.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - martyup - 05-21-2024
Yepi wins! 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. ALL AMERICAN!!
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Sakibomb25 - 05-21-2024
And Ma and Yepifanova team up to beat Michigan’s Brown and Miller. I believe the duo are also All-Americans since they are in the Sweet Sixteen.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - martyup - 05-21-2024
(05-21-2024, 07:20 PM)Sakibomb25 Wrote: And Ma and Yepifanova team up to beat Michigan’s Brown and Miller. I believe the duo are also All-Americans since they are in the Sweet Sixteen.
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia0.giphy.com%2Fmedi...ipo=images]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia0.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FlMameLIF8voLu8HxWV%2Fgiphy.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=4315484fa4164f360771640a3a90646e5bad731ab3b29f452a01fc50198fc386&ipo=images)
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-22-2024
Alas, the doubles All-American designations only go to the top 8 seeds and the unseeded teams that make the final 8, so one more win is needed for that!
In singles, they both have tough matchups today--all the matchups left are tough: Ma vs. Vidmanova, UGA's #1, and Yepifanova vs. #50 Luciana Perry of Ohio State. You'd like Yepifanova's chances better, though.
Ma lost her first set 6-3, but she's up a break in the second, 3-0. Yepifanova is locked in a first set tiebreaker, so hopefully she can get this one and roll to a good finish.
Well, Ma gave the break back and it's back on serve.
Yepifanova pulled out the tiebreaker, 7-4!
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - martyup - 05-22-2024
The iOnCourt website is tough to navigate. Here is the link to the ongoing matches.
https://ioncourt.com/tournaments/664a37133610b8e652548bd2/live-score
Yepifanova gets the win! 7-6, 6-1
Ma is about down a set and has match point against her.
Ma loses 6-3, 6-4
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - martyup - 05-22-2024
Yepifanova has a tough quarter final opponent in Alexa Noel. Noel beat Yepi at indoors in straight sets. Match is tomorrow (May 23) at 10am.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Lorcan - 05-23-2024
(05-22-2024, 10:12 PM)martyup Wrote: Yepifanova has a tough quarter final opponent in Alexa Noel. Noel beat Yepi at indoors in straight sets. Match is tomorrow (May 23) at 10am.
Noel does in fact sweep once again, as Yepifanova falls 6-2 6-3. A disappointing end to such a promising year.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2024
And that's a wrap on the 2023-24 Stanford season. Lots of successes, lots of hope, but ultimately it has to be considered a disappointment on two fronts: (1) we were national championship caliber, and we didn't play like it when it mattered most; and (2) Angelica Blake leaves Stanford (as do, perhaps, India Houghton and Ana Geller) without a national title, the first time that's happened in Lele Forood's tenure. She has never failed to get a class a national title at least once in their time at Stanford. Until now.
Anyway, we now look to next year's roster, a roster that would be a lot stronger with Eleana Yu, but we won't get that luxury. We'll have six good singles players, but it'll be a sizable dropoff from whomever plays 6 to whomever is our #7. So, next year, we'll also have a national championship-caliber roster, but it'll be one that's less resistant to injury than this year's was.
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 06-27-2024
FYI, Yu is transferring to Duke, so we'll see her in ACC play next year, and she'll have ample opportunity to prove that Lele was wrong to leave her out of the lineup here. (I would've played her at 6 ahead of Xu; whether that would've been enough to keep her on the roster is another question.)
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Sakibomb25 - 06-27-2024
This transfer makes sense. It will be interesting to see where in the line-up she’ll be (I can’t imagine her going to Duke without guaranteed playing time).
I do wonder if there is more to the story than just playing time…
RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 08-05-2024
(05-06-2024, 12:57 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Precisely who we'd be in on, recruit-wise, I have no idea. But one name that stands out is current #3 recruit Alyssa Ahn of San Diego, who won a girls' 16s national title in 2022 and who is the top college-bound recruit who hasn't verbally committed yet. We sometimes see that with Stanford, as folks wait to commit and want to see if they get in. But she said in 2022 that Stanford was her dream, so let's hope she still feels that way (and that we feel the same).
A number of the top 10 are already committed, though as these players are high school juniors, a lot can change between now and then, and perhaps the prospect of playing in the lineup for Stanford right away is enough of an inducement to get them to switch from Harvard (as is the case for #5 recruit Tianmei Wang of San Marino, CA), Princeton (#4 recruit Monika Ekstrand of Delray Beach, FL), or UNC (#7 recruit Alanis Hamilton of Bentonville, AR).
Also uncommitted in the top are a trio from New York: #8 Leena Friedman of Brooklyn, #9 Christasha McNeil of Lindenhurst, and #10 Claire An from NYC.
And it could be that we see an international student. We take international tennis players much less frequently than other top programs, but it's not unheard of, with Ana Geller (Argentina), Emily Arbuthnott (UK), and Carol Zhao (Canada) recent examples.
In the past week or so, we've seen some major recruitment movement.
First, on July 26, Alyssa Ahn (the #3 player I noted above, who has now risen to #2 in the class) verbally committed to Stanford. She was the top uncommitted player, she'd already expressed her dream to play for us, and it just made all the sense in the world. I figured it might wait until after early admission happens in the fall, as that's pretty common, but I'm glad to see it now. Welcome, Alyssa! As she is now #2 behind Akasha Urhobo, who has turned pro, that makes it two years in a row that we get the top college-bound recruit in the country!
Next, just yesterday, Monika Ekstrand, the #4 player in the class, committed to Stanford! She apparently quietly decommitted from Princeton in recent weeks, and publicly announced her commitment to Stanford on her instagram. Welcome, Monika! That's a player I suggested above we might try and flip in the wake of Yu leaving, and sure enough, that's how it played out. Ideally you would've kept Yu, but obviously that situation wasn't salvageable, and this is one heck of a plan B.
That gives us the following rosters the next two years:
Spring 2025:
Seniors (3): Ma, Yepifanova, Xu
Juniors (2): Blokhina, Sun
Sophomores (1): Hui
Freshmen (1): Glozman
Spring 2026:
Seniors (2): Blokhina, Sun
Juniors (1): Hui
Sophomores (1): Glozman
Freshmen (2): Ahn, Ekstrand
That still leaves us a little light on scholarship players the next couple of years, and I have to think that we'll see an incoming transfer, if not this year, then perhaps next year, to offset the fact that we only have one player each in a couple successive classes. Maybe it's someone who's been great at a prior stop and has the academic chops to get in with a few years of eligibility remaining, or maybe it's someone who comes in as a grad transfer like Okpara, but preferably someone a little more dangerous on the tennis court. The prospect of Sun playing #6 the year after next doesn't fill me with excitement, I'll say that. And part of getting players like Ahn and Ekstrand was probably the prospect of potentially playing high in the lineup right away, so you might introduce some resentment by bringing in another player in either Hui's or Glozman's class.
But getting commitments from Ahn and Ekstrand is a terrific first step!
And it helps illustrate how next year is one of those years where the title window is still wide open, while our prospects in Spring 2026 don't look quite as bright.