Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - Printable Version
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RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - Lorcan - 09-26-2024
It's worth noting that Valerie Glozman is the only freshperson, man or woman, in the Round of 16 in this tournament.
It's good to see Blokhina bounce back from a rough morning to pair up with Ma and sweep into the next round over the #34 team, winning 6-3 6-3. They're one win away from a spot in the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Valencia Xu continues to find some semblance of form despite a disappointing first round match as she's now knocked off #51 Kylie Bilchev of Georgia Tech on an indoor court 6-3 6-1. Xu now has three ranked wins this week - so not too shabby of a showing from her now. She has what should be a winnable match against #33 Bridget Stammel, Vanderbilt.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - Lorcan - 09-27-2024
What a win for Valerie Glozman! She knocks off the 8 seed, Sarah Hamner, 7-5 6-4! Connie Ma has righted ship after losing the first set to square her affair up at 3-6 6-4. We'll see if she can join Glozman in the next round.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - Lorcan - 09-27-2024
Connie Ma drops it 7-5 in the third - on deciding point no less. A close battle - and she'll move into the consolation bracket to see if she can clinch a bid.
It's nice to see Morgan Shaffer and Emma Sun get their season under way at the Cal Invite, but slightly less exciting to see that they've dropped their first doubles match 8-5, to a team from Nevada. We'll see if they fare any better individually.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 09-28-2024
Ma bounced back with a three-set win over #41 Emma Jackson (Duke) that just wrapped up, and her reward is a match with #2 Dasha Vidmanova in the consolation quarterfinals. No rest for the weary!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-07-2024
The ITA Northwest Regionals kick off this Friday in Berkeley (hopefully just a one-year hiatus due to Taube renovations), and while we don't have draws yet, we do have player entries, and the entire roster (save Yepifanova) is slated to take part. That's one of the reasons I've always liked this tournament, because the whole team is there and you get some fun regional matchups that we might not otherwise see on the dual match schedule.
Here's the tournament page: https://colleges.wearecollegetennis.com/Competitions/ITA/Tournaments/schedule/89E7135F-BBD9-4E83-9A9C-89847FF418AF/completed
Live streaming: https://calbears.com/sports/2013/4/17/208195810.aspx
I'll update once we see the draws and seeds, but Ma should be the 1. Where you slot Glozman after her run at All-Americans is TBD, but leaving that out for now, you'd expect Cal's Alsola and Wiersholm to be the 2 and the 3, then Jacobs and Carter from UW, then Blokhina (and maybe Glozman, if she's not higher), Hui, Xu, Cal's Lan Mi, Houghton, and Cal's Passola Folch and Mushika.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - BobK - 10-07-2024
Anyone have a clue where Stanford home meets will be??? Gues they practice across the street from what used to be Taube
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - Jamesy - 10-07-2024
(10-07-2024, 10:16 AM)BobK Wrote: Anyone have a clue where Stanford home meets will be??? Gues they practice across the street from what used to be Taube
Taube South is supposed to be done next month and will host the home matches until the stadium is done.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - BobK - 10-07-2024
Little seating but that’s life
Last meet I when to we all crowded under the east end for the shade
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-12-2024
Northwest Regionals kicks off in earnest today with the singles main draw, and here's when our players will hit the court:
11:00am:
[1] Ma vs. Rose Hayes (Gonzaga)
[7] Xu vs. Elyse Tse (Wazzu)
12:15pm: [9] Okpara vs. Indiya McLeod (Pacific)
12:30pm: [5] Blokhina vs. Megan Carmichael (Pacific)
1:30pm: [6] Glozman vs. Isabella Bringas (UC Davis)
In doubles, we saw the tournament get going yesterday with an opening round, and Okpara/Shaffer lost 8-6 to a team from San Jose State. But our seeded pairs had byes to today, so they'll get going soon:
9:00am:
[3] Ma/Glozman vs. Symons/Jagare (Oregon)
[4] Xu/Blokhina vs. Suko/Gagnon (UW)
Live streaming for today's matches right here: https://calbears.com/sports/2013/4/17/208195810.aspx
Not sure why, but Houghton, Hui, and Sun all withdrew. Hopefully they're all healthy!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-13-2024
A few rounds gone, and we're into the semifinals, with three of our four in the main draw still kicking.
* Ma beat Cal's Mao Mushika 6-3, 6-3 to book her spot in the semifinals against UW's Reece Carter;
* The other semifinal will be an all-Stanford affair, as Glozman pasted Cal's Lan Mi 6-0, 6-1 in the R16 and then got past WSU's Eva Alvarez Sande 6-3, 7-5 (who was coming off a 6-3, 6-3 upset over 2nd-seeded Jessica Alsola of Cal) in the QFs. She'll play 5th-seeded Blokhina, as she beat Cal's Sophie Hernandez 7-6, 6-3 in the R16 before breezing past 3rd-seeded Alexia Jacobs of UW 6-3, 6-0.
* Both matches are tomorrow at 11am.
As a reminder, the finalists qualify for the NCAA singles championship. So, there's a little extra juice in these semifinal matchups, especially Blokhina-Glozman, as Glozman has already punched her ticket. If Blokhina wins, they both go to NCAAs, but if Glozman wins, then that extra spot will basically be converted into a wild card that goes to the highest-ranked player who hasn't already qualified when NCAAs come around later this fall.
If Ma wins, you wonder if they'll just pack it up and finish the singles tournament on our home courts at our leisure.
Both Stanford doubles teams are still alive, too. 4th-seeded Xu/Blokhina take on 7th-seeded Murphy/Alvarez Sande (WSU) tomorrow at 9:00am and 3rd-seeded Ma/Glozman take on Abouelsaad/Markov (WSU) at the same time in the doubles quarters. Semis for the winners will be at 2pm.
So, it looks to be a potentially long day for our remaining players. Doubles at 9am, singles at 11am, doubles again at 2pm, and the singles final TBD.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-14-2024
Both doubles teams won their matches this morning, so they'll play again at 2pm this afternoon:
[4] Xu/Blokhina vs. [1] Jacobs/Carter (UW)
[3] Ma/Glozman vs. [2] Luescher/Matsuda (UW)
Doubles can be pretty wonky in terms of unexpected results, so it's interesting that chalk held up!
Right now, Ma was down an early break to UW's Reece Carter, but she just broke to get back on serve, down 3-4, while Glozman just won her first set, 6-2, over Blokhina.
With the two finalists booking tickets to NCAAs, it seems a little crazy that even with 3 of our players in the semis, we could fail to book a single additional ticket, but that's what would happen if Glozman and Carter both win.
I don't put a lot of meaning in the NCAA individual tournament--the team championship is the thing--so for me, while I want Ma to book her spot by beating Carter, I don't care if Blokhina or Glozman wins. I want both to play well, of course, but if Glozman is going to play higher in the lineup than Blokhina (as I think she will), then I want the better player to win. Plus, I want to see Ma-Glozman in a competitive match, you know? I know Ma is above Blokhina, so there's not much to learn there. Given Glozman's results so far this fall, how much can she push Ma??
Glozman now up 6-2, 4-1. Meanwhile, Ma just broke to go ahead 6-5, and she'll have a chance to serve out the set now.
Ugh, not that it mattered. Ma's struggles in her service game today continue as Carter breaks to force a first-set tiebreaker. Glozman now up 5-1 in the second on Blokhina.
5-2 in the second now for Glozman as Blokhina holds on what was a delightful, back-and-forth point with drop shots and lobs galore.
Ma tied up 3-3 in the breaker so far as they change ends....
Ma up 4-3. Now Carter's turn to serve two as they're on serve.
4-4.
5-4 Ma as she could serve it out here.
6-4 Ma. One more point!
7-4 Ma! Carter steps up on a second serve and looks poised to crush it, and she does--but into the net.
Glozman finishes off Blokhina, 6-2, 6-2, as she continues a really impressive fall season.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-14-2024
You know what's fun? Cal is hosting this tournament--our tournament, the one we'd be hosting but for Taube renovations. And yet, no Bears are playing today!
Ma breaks Carter to go up 2-0 in the second set. A flat service game from Carter there.
After Ma held in the opening game of the set, it's been four breaks since for a 3-2 Ma lead with Carter serving. Ma's service game is probably the single biggest thing keeping her from being a truly dominant force.
Aaaaand another break, and Ma leads 4-2. And then she finally holds for 5-2! But Carter held for 5-3, so it was up to Ma's shaky service game to close out the match. She went down 15-40 as Carter was hitting freely, looking like she had nothing to lose. She got back to 30-40 but then sent a forehand just long and all of a sudden the set was back on serve at 5-4 up. Carter will try to level next. Disappointing finishing for Ma here, but perhaps she's more comfortable trying to win it with her excellent return game?
And Ma wins two quick points to go up 0-30 on Carter's serve. Two points away. Then 0-40. One point away. Then 15-40. And a terrific, long rally on that point makes it 30-40. Then Ma sends one long and it's deciding point. And she hits it into the net. That's four match points frittered away.... 5-5 in the second.
Then Ma gets broken on deciding point for 5-6 down, and Carter--from 5-2 down--will serve for the set, up 6-5. Ugly stuff.
And on deciding point--yes, yet another deciding point, as it feels like nearly every game has gone to deciding point--Ma plunks it into the net and we'll go to a third set. She has absolutely done this to herself. This match could've been over ages ago.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-14-2024
Third set starting better from Ma. Held for 1-0, broke for 2-0, was broken for 2-1, and just broke back for 3-1. Can she hold now? Probably not! CONNIE, PROVE ME WRONG.
Reader, she did not hold. Lost on deciding point again, and it's on serve at 3-2 up.
I wonder what the record is for highest percentage of service games lost in a match you somehow won? Because the winner of this match has to be flirting with that record.
And as I type that, Ma breaks Carter to go up 4-2, and Carter is visibly frustrated.
And she holds for 5-2 for the second set in a row. Surely this time has to be different, right??
(It was. She then broke to win the third set 6-2.) Whew!
So it'll be Ma-Glozman for the regional title tomorrow sometime (or back on campus at a more convenient date, I suppose). Glozman gets the benefit of an extra couple hours of rest today after a much less arduous semifinal match.
Doubles semis were supposed to start 20 minutes ago, but with a participant in both doubles semifinals taking part in that singles marathon, I would imagine that they'll give Carter and Ma some amount of rest before they play those.
And, of course, that means that Connie Ma joins Valerie Glozman in the NCAA singles championship in November!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - magnus - 10-14-2024
Thanks for the updates! Caught some live play at the end of set 1 and set 2. Was hoping for that killer instinct in set 2 to close it out but alas, it didn't happen. Glad she was able to close it out in the 3rd.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - spike5882 - 10-15-2024
Both of our doubles teams made it to the finals ... winner going to the Doubles Championships.
Blokhina will play Reece Carter from Washington in the consolation singles playoff, and on twitter, Stanfor's account says the winner will go to the Singles Championships. So if Blokhina can pull out a win, we'd have 3 there.
https://x.com/StanfordWTennis/status/1846041039850951164/photo/1
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-15-2024
I guess they're changing up how they do it! The previous guidance was that players who miss out by one round (so, losing in the semis here, or losing in the R16 at All-Americans) are added to the alternate pool, and then sorted by ITA ranking, and then that's the list used to fill any vacancies that arise because some players qualify more than once.
But I'm guessing Blokhina--a borderline candidate for NCAAs in the first place based on preseason ranking--will take it!
The decision to play out the semifinal in the first place is something you could question. Glozman could have done her teammate a solid and just withdrawn from the match to punch Blokhina's ticket. That has happened at least once elsewhere around the country, with an already-qualified Auburn player giving her teammate a walkover in the semifinal. But the singles pecking order for the spring is hardly established with Glozman coming in, Blake gone, and Yepifanova a question mark. If I'm Glozman and I think I should be playing at the top of the lineup, this tournament gave you a chance to prove you should be above Blokhina (your main competition for #2 if Sasha is out) and gives you a chance against Ma for the top spot, too. Why give that up just so you can help Blokhina book a spot to NCAAs, where she'd very likely lose in the first round?
I might feel a little different if it were Glozman against, say, Yepifanova, because Yepifanova is a known quantity at that level who could make a deep run at NCAAs. Of course, I'd also want both Yepifanova and Glozman to get a high-quality match against each other, and I'd also want to see who wins in a tournament setting versus a challenge match or something back on campus.
This also tells me that Frankie didn't have a conversation with Glozman about how it might be better for the program overall for her to give Blokhina a walkover. And that suggests an internally competitive environment. Go out and play your best and see what happens. Good.
(Or maybe it was unclear if the sort of gamesmanship involved in a strategic walkover would be tolerated at this tournament, or if it might subject you to consequences elsewhere--these sorts of incentives were the downside of the structure they created when they wanted to make NCAAs something you have to earn your way into with specific tournaments. We'll see if the Auburn situation is addressed.)
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-15-2024
I wish we could've seen Hui at this tournament to assess whether she'd taken a developmental leap and might also climb over Blokhina this season.
That said, Blokhina did book one super impressive result at this tournament, and that's her 6-3, 6-0 pasting of UW's Alexia Jacobs, the 3rd seed and the preseason #54 player. Jacobs played #2 for UW last year and was the higher-ranked of the two Huskies in the preseason rankings, suggesting she might play #1 over the unranked Erika Matsuda (my normal guesses as to why Matsuda might not be ranked--like she's injured and missing the fall or she's taking the fall off to play pro tournaments or something--don't apply here, so I'm a bit confused).
That's a great win for Blokhina, especially coming on the heels of a not-all-that-impressive close win over Cal freshman Sophie Hernandez.
Blokhina should be a little more rested than Carter after Carter's marathon with Ma yesterday. And really, Carter has had some battles this tournament--she needed three sets against Ma in the semis, against Cal's Berta Passola Folch in the quarters, against Cal's Tiziana-Marie Schomburg in the R16, and against WSU's Maxine Murphy in the R32. She had just one easy match this tournament, and it was in the first round against an outmatched San Jose State player. So, hopefully Blokhina can take advantage!
Kinda pumped for Ma-Glozman, too. I wouldn't be shocked to see Glozman's aggressive style of play take her out to an early lead and for Ma to have to try and battle back. This will make both of them better. Let's do it!
They're both wearing white tops, red skirts, and a red visor, so in theory, it's hard to tell who's who. But here's a tip: Glozman hustles between points. Ma never hustles between points. Just expends the minimum amount of energy possible when there isn't a point happening.
Glozman broke Ma to start the match, but Ma broke her right back. 1-1 so far.
Over on Court 2, Blokhina is coming out strong, going up 3-0 to start things off with two breaks of Carter's serve. Frankie is coaching her, and I would imagine we won't see Frankie or our new assistant coach Janice Shin show up on Court 1 to help out either Connie or Valerie.
Blokhina held to go up 4-0, but then Carter held and broke for 2-4, but then Blokhina broke back for 5-2 and then served up an ace up 40-15 to win the first set 6-2.
Glozman broke for 3-2, and then she consolidated it by finally getting a service hold, and she's up on Ma, 4-2.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-15-2024
Another break and a hold from Glozman gives her the first set, 6-2. Now 1-1 in the second on Ma's serve, and Glozman looks energized. Ma can sometimes be a slow starter and need to fight her way back into a match, but she's running out of time to do that.
On Court 2, it's on serve so far in the second, with Blokhina serving down 2-3.
Glozman breaks again to go up 2-1. Can Ma slow down this train?
Blokhina holds for 3-3. Carter not going away, though, and every point is a battle. Perhaps she doesn't dominate lesser opponents like she should, but this tournament has certainly shown me that Carter is always going to be a tough out. Blokhina goes up 40-30 on Carter's serve, but Carter toughs out both points and holds for 4-3.
Glozman holds for 3-1, so Ma is going to have to up her service game if she's going to make a comeback here.
Blokhina finally falters on serve as Carter gets the break to go up 5-3 in the second, and she'll try and serve it out now. Can Blokhina break to stay in the set?
And on Court 1, Glozman fights to a deciding point on Ma's serve and after a great rally, Ma comes to the net but Glozman blows it right past her. Glozman now leads 6-2, 4-1 in a scoreline that I sure didn't see coming. I could see her beating Ma, to be sure, but Connie's a fighter and I figured Glozman wouldn't be able to just roll over her.
Blokhina can break to stay in the set, and she does so at love. 5-4 and she'll serve to level it next.
And Blokhina does indeed level things at 5-5 in the second. Meanwhile, Glozman holds for a 5-1 lead in the second, and Ma is serving for her life now.
Some quick lineup thoughts right now if this result holds:
1. Glozman
2. Ma
3. Blokhina
4. Hui
5. Xu
6. Houghton
With Yepifanova playing 2 or 3 if she comes back for the spring.
Carter was up 40-15 on her serve, but Blokhina fights back and takes the next three points to go up 6-5! She'll serve for the match next.
Meanwhile, Ma holds for 5-2 down, so Glozman will have a chance to serve out the match at the same time Blokhina does.
Ma finally looking like the best version of herself again as she breaks Glozman at love! Still down a break, but signs of life at long last! Playing like she has nothing to lose, which, well, she doesn't. When you're down 6-2, 5-1, you might as well swing freely!
Blokhina has one match point saved at 40-30, and Carter takes deciding point to fend off the other. Sigh. 6-6, and it'll be a tiebreaker for the second set.
Of note, Blokhina's fitness level looks much improved from last season--I'm guessing she worked hard on that this offseason.
Ma holds easily and Glozman will again serve for the match, up 6-2, 5-4.
3-3 in the breaker as they change ends but Carter gets the next point and goes up a minibreak at 4-3 with two serves coming.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-15-2024
I had to do stuff, so I missed the ends of both matches, but what matches they were!
* Glozman claims her first collegiate title with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Connie Ma. Some great fight from Ma there with her back against the wall, and she forces the breaker, but it's not enough. Good on Glozman for finding that extra gear in the tiebreaker, though. It can be very, very hard to close out a set or a match when you have been up by that much and you feel it all slipping away. To be up 5-1 and be taken to a breaker is a body blow, but she recovered from it.
* Blokhina lost that tiebreaker, but she turned it back on in the third set to win 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 over Carter to book her place at NCAAs! That's now three Stanford players who have earned their places there, and chances remain for Hui to make it four.
Congrats to Valerie and Alexis on their wins! And congrats to Connie for yesterday's NCAA-spot-clinching win!
Also, hey guys? Glozman is really, really good. We've got something there.
FWIW, looks like Xu is out there getting warmed up, so presumably they'll still try and get the doubles final in today. On one hand, she's the only one of the four in this match playing with fresh legs, but on the other hand, she's the only one coming into the match cold.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 10-15-2024
Ma/Glozman took the first set 6-2, but Xu/Blokhina answered back by taking the second 6-4. Looks like they're playing a match tiebreaker for the third set! (While exciting, it remains a terrible way to decide matches.)
They change ends with Ma/Glozman leading the breaker 5-1.
Then 6-1, before Xu/Blokhina get a couple back for 6-3, then 7-3, then 7-4. Xu serving now. 7-5 as they change ends again.
Ma/Glozman turn it on and take it 10-6, so they'll be pulling double duty at NCAAs in November, playing singles and doubles.