Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs

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RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2022

At a certain level of player caliber, it's tough to predict. For Ma, Kessler is a fifth-year player who was a prized recruit and has been the #1 for one of collegiate tennis's great programs for a few years now. But Ma is every bit her match, and these postseason individual tournaments are so wild because the incentive structure has changed so much from the team-focused atmosphere until now. Some seeds come in deflated from their performance in the team tournament and don't play close to their level. Some players come in, get hot, and all of a sudden you have weird results where the #3 player on a given team is now the NCAA singles champion. For Yepifanova, yeah, Stearns is a super tough draw, but Ma beat Stearns in three sets earlier this season. Is Stearns energized by her team championship? Or is there a bit of an emotional letdown? Sasha is good enough to beat Stearns, no question. But what sort of energy do our players come out with? The individual tournament hasn't been a place for great Stanford performances of late--Nicole Gibbs in 2013 stands as our last singles champion, and her 2012 doubles title with Mallory Burdette is our last title there.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - 2006alum - 05-23-2022

(05-23-2022, 01:28 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: The individual tournament hasn't been a place for great Stanford performances of late--Nicole Gibbs in 2013 stands as our last singles champion, and her 2012 doubles title with Mallory Burdette is our last title there.

Wow. How quickly time passes - I tend to think of Stanford as being perennially in the hunt for individual singles and doubles titles. Weren't we regularly winning those through the late oughts and early 2010s? Were we just so much more dominant during that stretch that it translated even into what you rightly describe as the crapshoot of the postseason individual tournaments?

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - Jamesy - 05-23-2022

(05-23-2022, 02:26 PM)2006alum Wrote:
(05-23-2022, 01:28 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: The individual tournament hasn't been a place for great Stanford performances of late--Nicole Gibbs in 2013 stands as our last singles champion, and her 2012 doubles title with Mallory Burdette is our last title there.

Wow. How quickly time passes - I tend to think of Stanford as being perennially in the hunt for individual singles and doubles titles. Weren't we regularly winning those through the late oughts and early 2010s? Were we just so much more dominant during that stretch that it translated even into what you rightly describe as the crapshoot of the postseason individual tournaments?

We haven't been in the hunt for a singles championship in recent years. I decided to look it up: https://gostanford.com/news/2022/5/19/womens-tennis-ncaa-singles-tournament-results.aspx

If you look at our previous singles champions, Gibbs, Liu and Granville in the last ~20 years, they're all generationally dominant players. Zhao is close to that, but the more recent #1s haven't been in the same category. Ironically, in the early 2010s, Gibbs took out a lot of her teammates in the late stages of the singles championships so we could have had more champions if they were different years.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2022

(05-23-2022, 02:26 PM)2006alum Wrote:
(05-23-2022, 01:28 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: The individual tournament hasn't been a place for great Stanford performances of late--Nicole Gibbs in 2013 stands as our last singles champion, and her 2012 doubles title with Mallory Burdette is our last title there.

Wow. How quickly time passes - I tend to think of Stanford as being perennially in the hunt for individual singles and doubles titles. Weren't we regularly winning those through the late oughts and early 2010s? Were we just so much more dominant during that stretch that it translated even into what you rightly describe as the crapshoot of the postseason individual tournaments?

Our teams back then were constructed differently, too. We had depth then as now, but in recent years, our titles have been on the backs of that depth, winning courts 3-6 and hoping for one from the top three or in doubles. Back then, we had full-on aces. Nicole Gibbs, Amber Liu, Laura Granville--all 2-time NCAA singles champions. And either doubles was more of an emphasis back then or we had some players particularly suited for it, because between 2002 and 2012, we won the doubles title 5 out of 10 times, with three different Burdette sisters taking home a NCAA doubles crown.

I think Ma is an ace. And I think Yepifanova isn't far off that, and maybe she overtakes Ma over time. (Hard to get that 6-4, 6-1 Northwest Regionals head-to-head win by Ma out of my head, though.)

FYI, Ma leads Mattel 7-5, 4-3, up a break.

Ma closes the door with a 7-5, 6-3 win over UCF's Mattel. Eyes turn to Court 5, where Yepifanova is warming up.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2022

Yepifanova went down 1-3 but broke back, consolidated, and then broke again to go up 4-3. Then on Yepifanova's serve, she was playing the angles and hit a couple of crosscourt shots to Sedlackova's backhand that were very close (far court in the video feed, so I couldn't tell for sure), but both were called out. But Sasha controlled deciding point for the hold to go up 5-3, and she broke again to take the set 6-3. Really looks in command right now, and Sedlackova's shoulders are slumped.

FYI, Sedlackova is a fellow freshman, and she mostly played #3 for Alabama this year before playing a couple matches at 1 and then at 2 to finish the season (and she pulled off a massive upset win over then-#25 Lea Ma of UGA that is a big part of why she's ranked high enough to be here right now). Big serve, but she doesn't move nearly as well as Sasha does. If Yepifanova can continue to exploit that and make Sedlackova have to move, she should do well today.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - M T - 05-23-2022

Don't you just love GoStanford.com's schedule? There's no hint of these matches. (That, plus the awkwardness of having (sometimes) only some of the day's events on the main page, with no links to coverage or further details. Only a link to the "full" schedule that makes you hunt down today's date and then open it. Geez, but I guess that's what you get when go with one vendor - SideArm sports - and no one else able to say "I can do it better!".)

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2022

Yepifanova was in cruise control in her second set, and while there were a handful of deciding points, Sasha always had the answer in those key moments. 6-3, 6-1, and she moves onto a second round match against Stearns.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-23-2022

Singles Round of 32

9:30am: Ma vs. Kessler
12:30pm: Yepifanova vs. Stearns

Doubles Round of 32

5:30pm: Blake/Ma vs. Stearns/Zamarippa (Texas)

Hopefully Stearns is tired and defeated from her match with Yepifanova and that spills over into doubles!

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022

A pretty good day for the Pac-12 overall in women's singles, as in addition to Ma and Yepifanova, the conference had these other wins:

* Salma Ewing (USC) d. Victoria Hu (Princeton) 6-1, 6-4
* Haley Giavara (Cal) d. Lisa Marie Rioux (OK ST) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
* Elysia Bolton (UCLA) d. Kit Gullihur (N Fla) 7-5, 6-2
* Michaela Bayerlova (WSU) d. Eden Richardson (Miami) 6-2, 6-0
* Eryn Cayetano (USC) d. Rebeka Mertena (Tenn) 6-1, 6-7, 6-3

On the other side of the ledger, UCLA's Abigail Forbes lost to Pepperdine's Lisa Zaar, and Cal's Jessica Alsola lost a tight three-setter to Duke's Chloe Beck. So, a 7-2 first round for the conference. And old friend Mariia Kozyreva of St. Mary's won in three sets over UNC's Reilly Tran, so good for her.

FYI, whoever wins their second round matches today secures ITA All-American status for the year, so some accolades on the line today. The seeded players in the field have already secured that status, but that's only Cayetano from the conference.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022

Ma's match is just getting started on Court 4, by the way. Live video on the Tennis One app.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022

Ma got down 5-2 in her first, but she broke for 5-3 down, and then down 0-40 on her serve, fought to get to deciding point (set point for Kessler), and she took it to get to 5-4 down! Kessler will serve for the set after they change ends, but she slams the ball into the net in frustration after giving away that opportunity.

And Ma breaks again for 5-5!

Serving at 30-30, Ma lays down an absolutely filthy drop shot that barely clears the net. Kessler forced deciding point with a beautifully played point, but Ma takes her first lead of the match with a big overhead after a lengthy rally. Kessler will serve down 5-6 to force a tiebreaker.

Ma had a clear chance up 40-15 to take the set but dumped it into the net. Sigh. On the next point, Ma hits a cross court forehand that Kessler calls out, but the chair umpire overrules it, and that's the first set to Connie, 7-5! Both Kessler and her coach are pretty upset with that call (couldn't tell whether it was right from our limited view), but the first set is in the books.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022

I left for a meeting when Ma trailed 0-2 in the second set, but I have emerged and she appears to have won it! 7-5, 6-4 for Ma and the freshman is an ITA All-American!

In the Round of 16, Ma will play the winner of #50 Salma Ewing of USC and #69 Veronica Miroshnichenko of Loyola. Miroshnichenko knocked off #5 Cameron Morra of UNC in the first round in exciting fashion, eating a bagel in the first set before winning 6-1, 6-3 the rest of the way. Ma beat Ewing 6-4, 7-6 back in March.

If Ma can win that match, her likely quarterfinal opponent is #1 Emma Navarro of UVA. At ITA Kick-Off Weekend, Ma fought hard but fell in a close third set to Navarro in Charlottesville. A tough opponent in the quarters, but every opponent from here on out is tough.

In other Pac-12 news, WSU's Bayerlova joins Ma in the final 16 (and as a singles All-American) with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Duke's Chloe Beck. UCLA's Bolton lost her second round match.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022

Yepifanova's match is on Court 11, FYI. I joined when Yepifanova was serving up 4-3 (she got broken), and then she broke back to give her a chance to serve out the set, and at 40-40 (set point/deciding point), Stearns broke her again to get to 5-5 and just held easily to go up 6-5. Sasha is now serving to force a tiebreaker.

Frustrating that she didn't capitalize on that opportunity up 5-4, 40-40, because who knows how many more of those she'll get against a player like Stearns.

And Stearns breaks her again. Easily. Stearns takes the first set 7-5. Sigh.

Down 0-2 in the second, Yepifanova breaks to get back on serve, but she can't do anything with it--her serve isn't terribly powerful today and Stearns is feasting on it. Broken at love and she trails 5-7, 1-3. Sasha's return game has been excellent, but it's awfully hard to win if you can't hold serve.

And right on cue, she breaks Stearns again to get the second set back on serve at 2-3. Can she hold for once and get something started?

Out of nowhere, Yepifanova brings the pain on the serve and holds at love! 3-3. Can she now go up a break?

She breaks Stearns at love and now leads 4-3. Keep it going, Sasha! Force that third set!

Yepifanova goes down 0-40, gets back to deciding point, and then Stearns takes it and it's 4-4. Sigh.

Yepifanova breaks Stearns at love again and is serving for the set, up 5-4. Come on!

She goes up 40-15 for three set points. Then 40-30. And then Sasha dumps a forehand into the net and it's deciding point.... And she double faults! OH MAN. Now 5-5. Just awful.

And, of course, the momentum swing gives Stearns a boost of energy and she holds for the first time in a while to go one game away. Yepifanova again goes from set points on her serve to trying to force a tiebreaker.

She goes up 40-30 on her serve, Stearns hits a nice passing shot to force a massive deciding point/match point, and thankfully Stearns sprays it wide and we'll have a tiebreaker for the second set.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022

In the tiebreak:

* Stearns serves first and wins the point for 1-0.
* Yepifanova wins both points on her serve to go up 2-1.
* Stearns wins both on her serve to go up 3-2.
* Yepifanova wins the first point to make it 3-3, they change ends, and she double faults to give Stearns a mini-break at 3-4.
* Stearns sprays a forehand to give it back and make it 4-4, but Sasha sends the next return wide and Stearns leads 5-4.
* Stearns goes one point away when Yepifanova dumps a volley in the net to make it 6-4, and she sends a forehand wide and that's that.

Stearns wins 7-5, 7-6. Yepifanova was a game competitor and her return game was very, very sharp, but unfortunately, her serve deserted her throughout the match.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2022

Blake/Ma lost their doubles match handily, so it's just Connie Ma remaining, and she plays USC's Salma Ewing at 10:30am. A tough match, sure, but a very winnable one, and an opponent Ma has beaten before.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2022

FYI, here is the list of Pac-12 players who became singles All-Americans this year:

Connie Ma, Fr., Stanford
Michaela Bayerlova, 5th, WSU (beat Duke's Beck 7-5, 6-2)
Eryn Cayetano, Jr., USC (achieved status by virtue of seed; beat SDSU's Thamchaiwat 6-2, 7-5 to make the R16)
Salma Ewing, Sr., USC (beat LMU's Miroshnichenko 7-5, 6-4)
Haley Giavara, Jr. Cal (beat OU's Layne Sleeth 6-4, 1-0 (ret.))

So, that's 5 Pac-12 players in the final 16. By contrast, the ACC has 6 (including 2 from UVA and 3 from UNC), the Big 12 has 2 (both from Texas), the WCC has 2 (Pepperdine's Zaar and SMC's Kozyreva), and the Atlantic 10 has one. The Big Ten and SEC have no players in the final 16.

Compare that to the tournament's seeds: 6 from the ACC, 4 from the SEC, 2 from the Big 12, and 1 each from the Pac-12, Big Ten, Ivy League, and WCC. Fair to say that the Pac-12 has overperformed expectations!

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - 2006alum - 05-25-2022

(05-25-2022, 10:26 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Compare that to the tournament's seeds: 6 from the ACC, 4 from the SEC, 2 from the Big 12, and 1 each from the Pac-12, Big Ten, Ivy League, and WCC. Fair to say that the Pac-12 has overperformed expectations!

Well, at least in singles. In team play, Final Four were 2 ACC, 2 Big 12, and Elite Eight were 4 ACC, 2 Big 12, 1 SEC, and 1 WCC. So where it counted most PAC-12 washed out, more or less as seedings would have predicted.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2022

(05-25-2022, 10:43 AM)2006alum Wrote:
(05-25-2022, 10:26 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Compare that to the tournament's seeds: 6 from the ACC, 4 from the SEC, 2 from the Big 12, and 1 each from the Pac-12, Big Ten, Ivy League, and WCC. Fair to say that the Pac-12 has overperformed expectations!

Well, at least in singles. In team play, Final Four were 2 ACC, 2 Big 12, and Elite Eight were 4 ACC, 2 Big 12, 1 SEC, and 1 WCC. So where it counted most PAC-12 washed out, more or less as seedings would have predicted.

Oh, for sure. What I expected to be a great year for the Pac-12 was absolutely a letdown. But so far, this is something of a silver lining, at least!

Ma's match has started on Court 3, for those who are interested. Very windy in Champaign today. She broke Ewing on deciding point and then held for 2-0, and then Ma broke on another deciding point on Ewing's serve, and it's 3-0 Ma in the early going.

Then Ma has an awful service game and she's broken at love for a 3-1 lead before Ewing consolidates for 3-2. Ma is still up a break, but some streaky tennis so far.

What a service game from Ma there. Great movement, clean strokes, and she had Ewing all over the court. Painting the lines for a 4-2 lead. But still a double fault mixed in and some frustrating misses on her first serve, but both players are struggling with the wind on their tosses and adjusting to it. This is not a day for lobs or big tosses, to be sure. Then Ma delivered a really sharp return game and she's back up a double break at 5-2 in the first.

One thing I've noticed about Ma is that she calls a generous line. There have been numerous times this season where a ball looked just out to me but she plays on. A handful of examples of that today, but it hasn't hurt her--she's won each of the points where I thought she could've called an earlier ball out. Anyway, she holds easily and wins the first set 6-2.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2022

Ma breaks Ewing at love to open the second and she leads 6-2, 1-0. Then a quick hold at love for 2-0, and Ewing's body language tells the story. Slumped, defeated, wondering how she keeps sending these balls long. But then it's Ma pushing a few deep and it's yet another deciding point on Ewing's serve, and this time Ma pounces on the return but it's in the net, and it's 2-1.

Tight game on Ma's serve, but she ends it with an ace up the T for a 3-1 lead, and then Ewing holds at love for 3-2.

Another tight game on Ma's serve ends with a really nice rally from both players and a Ma winner clipping the line. 4-2. Another deciding point on Ewing's serve but Ma mishits it and it's in the next court over. 4-3. Ewing's level has been much better in this set, but Ma remains the aggressor.

Well, that was a poor time for Ma's serve and ground strokes to desert her. Ewing gets her first break of serve of the match to make it 4-4 in the second. Can she break right back? She's been unflappable all match, but she's starting to get frustrated.

Nope, she can't. Ewing holds at love and plays more confidently than she has all match, while Ma has tightened up and seems to be aiming her shots more rather than swinging away. Sigh. 5-4 Ewing in the second, and Ma better turn it around quickly.

Full credit to Ewing for sensing an opening and pushing through it, but a disappointing stretch here for Ma. She went from being calm and collected to looking completely defeated on a dime. At 4-5, 15-40, Ma looked lost. But she found something to get it to deciding point, and then inexplicably dumped it into the net when she had the whole court in front of her. What a letdown. Match tied up now, and Ma has only herself to blame.

RE: Women's Tennis: Pac-12 Champs and looking ahead to NCAAs - ColoradoTree - 05-25-2022

Ewing serves to start off the third, and it's quickly 15-40. But then Ma doesn't follow through on a forehand and it sails long, and then she dumps another routine ground stroke into the net, and then Ewing controls deciding point. Ma is giving Ewing lots of extra chances, and Ewing is too good a player not to capitalize on some of them.

From being up 6-2, 4-2, Ma now trails in the match for the first time. Ewing is talented, sure, but make no mistake--Ma is doing this to herself. She had Ewing absolutely beaten, and she let her start to believe.

A Ewing mishit gives Ma new life on her serve, and she takes advantage on deciding point to make it 1-1. Can she reassert herself here and show some of that same fire from the first and early second sets?

Reader, she cannot. Some Ma errors help Ewing hold at love, and it's a 2-1 Ewing lead in the third. This is frustrating, so I'm going to ignore the match for a little while in the hopes things turn around without me.

And my absence worked! I just checked in on the score, and Ewing was serving at 4-4, 30-30. Ma then won the next two points to go up 5-4 in the third, and she'll serve for the match next. This match is only still being played because Ma failed to finish Ewing off when she had the chance. Well, she's got a chance to redeem herself here.

Aaaand Ewing breaks. Sigh. Never mind.

On what seems to be the millionth deciding point on Ewing's serve this match, she converts to go up 6-5 and Ma will serve to force a deciding tiebreaker.

She holds and it's a tiebreaker!