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RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 03-11-2024

Eh, I doubt she'll make a move anytime soon. We're going to have to lose a match because of it first. 

And as for why we're not doing great in doubles, it's probably the same reason we've underperformed our talent level in doubles for the last several years. It can't just be an accident at this point--without having watched Stanford's practices, I assume we deemphasize doubles to the point that our players don't really improve much. But I have to believe it's something systemic.

FYI, we beat Arizona 7-0, which isn't by itself terribly shocking. We should beat Arizona by that margin. But here's how it happened:

* It was our usual doubles lineup. Ma/Yepifanova lost 6-3 at 1, Hui/Xu won 6-3 at 3, and Blake/Blokhina provided the clincher on 2 with a 7-5 win, so a pretty tight doubles point.
* Yepifanova didn't play singles--not sure as to the reason, could've just been rest--but Houghton slid into the #6 slot rather than Yu. Not sure whether Yu is also dealing with something, but that's a change from the last time they slid into the lineup.
* Ma was first off court with a 6-2, 6-2 win on 2. Blokhina followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win of her own on 3. And Houghton clinched with a 7-5, 6-2 win on Court 6. 
* They played it out, and then we got wins from Xu on 5 (6-0, 7-6), Blake (7-6, 6-0), and finally Hui, who needed a match tiebreaker to do it on 4 (4-6, 6-4, 10-7). 
* Same number of games won and lost for Xu and Blake, but man alive, they tell different stories. I would much rather have a player start slowly and struggle a bit before overcoming their opponent and establishing dominance than racing to an easy first set win and then struggling to finish. 
* Frustrating for Hui to drop a set there, but without having watched, it's hard to say why it happened. Given how well Hui played the day before, perhaps she was just a little tired. 

Now it's a couple weeks between matches for Stanford, as we don't play again until we host Colorado and Utah on March 23 and 24, respectively, with both matches set for noon. The ASU win should temporarily bolster our ranking average, but we'll likely dip somewhat in the coming weeks because we don't have potentially valuable matches until the end of the month, and then we get three in a row, with UCLA (Mar. 29), USC (Mar. 30), and Pepperdine (Apr. 5). I'll be out of pocket for the next four matches (in the older sense, meaning unavailable, rather than the way the kids these days are using it), so do please carry on without me!

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-05-2024

OK folks, there's a big one at the Farm today--#5 Stanford (14-2, 4-1 Pac-12) hosts #3 Pepperdine (11-3, 2-0 WCC) at 1:30pm. So, if you can get there, get there. If you can't, try to follow along!

But first, here's how the last couple of weeks went:

* Our match against CU was rained out;
* With Yepifanova and Blokhina taking the day off, we still beat Utah 4-0, though Hui/Xu lost 6-1 at #3 doubles. The singles wins came from Hui at 3, Ma at 2, and Houghton at 5, though Blake was two games away from a win on 1, Xu was one game away on 4, and Yu was two games away on 6. 
* Our first attempt to play UCLA on Friday, March 29 was rained out, but we got that match in on Sunday. But first, #9 USC last Saturday.
* We won a close doubles point and then Ma rolled over #28 Charney, 6-0, 6-1 at #2, and Hui put us a point away with a 6-3, 6-1 win on Court 5. Blokhina lost to Cayetano 6-3, 6-3 at 4, but then Yepifanova clinched the 4-1 win with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Grace Piper at 3. At the time the match was abandoned, Blake led Snow Han and Xu led Koenig, both by 7-6, 3-1 scores. Solid, solid result.
* It fell apart the next day against #17 UCLA, though. Blake/Blokhina dropped a tiebreaker at Court 2 that gave the doubles point to UCLA, and then Blokhina got blown off the court at 4 by Lutkemeyer, who I don't put close to Blokhina's level. And then Tian Fangran crushed Blake 6-0, 6-4 to make it 3-0 Bruins. We started to fight back, getting it to 3-1 behind Xu's 6-3, 6-1 win on Court 6, Yepifanova shook off a first set loss by winning the second and third sets 6-1 and 6-0, and Hui knotted things up with a 7-5, 6-4 win on Court 5. It was all down to Connie Ma, playing Kimmi Hance--who, while good, is not in Ma's league. Ma forced a third sit by winning a tiebreaker, and despite having match points in the third set, she ultimately lost her match in a third-set tiebreaker. A great comeback fell short because Ma--who has been one of our most consistent performers--couldn't close the deal at home against a lesser player. Frustrating. 
* Of course, we wouldn't have been in that position had Blokhina not laid an egg, or had Blake not failed to show up for her match. But Ma can't be losing to Hance, she just can't. Ultimately, however, it's not crushing to our hopes, and UCLA has been playing very well. We should expect to see them climb the rankings a bit. But it's still a match we should've won. And that's what rankles. 

Moving onto today, we get a Pepperdine team that is ranked third with an 11-3 record, with those two losses coming at now-#1 Oklahoma State, vs. now-#4 UVA, and at now-#2 Michigan. That's a pretty good trio of losses if you have to take them. They have one of the most aggressive non-conference schedules in the country (a necessity given their weak conference schedule), and that has resulted in two wins over #9 USC, two wins over #10 Cal, and wins over #16 Auburn, #13 Florida, and #12 Ohio State (with that last one coming on the road).

In singles, they boast #8 Savannah Broadus, #10 Lisa Zaar, #52 Janice Tjen, #90 Anna Campana, and #95 Nikki Redelijk. So here are the expected matchups:

1. Blake vs. #10 Zaar
2. #9 Ma vs. #8 Broadus
3. Yepifanova vs. #52 Tjen
4. Blokhina vs. #90 Campana
5. Hui vs. #95 Redelijk
6. Xu vs. Jasmine Conway

In doubles, Broadus/Tjen are Pepperdine's only ranked pair, but they're dominant--#2 in the country and undefeated in dual play on Court 1. Zaar/Conway have been excellent on Court 3, but the Waves have struggled on Court 2. So we'll see whether we can pull off the doubles point with wins on the lower two courts, because if we play in singles like we did against UCLA, we'll darn well need it. 

Here's how to watch: https://gostanford.com/sports/2022/3/17/womens-tennis-live-video-stats

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Spiny_Norman - 04-05-2024

(04-05-2024, 10:44 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote:  Moving onto today, we get a Pepperdine team that is ranked third with an 11-3 record, with those two losses coming at now-#1 Oklahoma State, vs. now-#4 UVA, and at now-#2 Michigan. That's a pretty good trio of losses if you have to take them. They have one of the most aggressive non-conference schedules in the country (a necessity given their weak conference schedule), and that has resulted in two wins over #9 USC, two wins over #10 Cal, and wins over #16 Auburn, #13 Florida, and #12 Ohio State (with that last one coming on the road).

In singles, they boast #8 Savannah Broadus, #10 Lisa Zaar, #52 Janice Tjen, #90 Anna Campana, and #95 Nikki Redelijk. So here are the expected matchups:

1. Blake vs. #10 Zaar
2. #9 Ma vs. #8 Broadus
3. Yepifanova vs. #52 Tjen
4. Blokhina vs. #90 Campana
5. Hui vs. #95 Redelijk
6. Xu vs. Jasmine Conway

In doubles, Broadus/Tjen are Pepperdine's only ranked pair, but they're dominant--#2 in the country and undefeated in dual play on Court 1. Zaar/Conway have been excellent on Court 3, but the Waves have struggled on Court 2. So we'll see whether we can pull off the doubles point with wins on the lower two courts, because if we play in singles like we did against UCLA, we'll darn well need it. 

Here's how to watch: https://gostanford.com/sports/2022/3/17/womens-tennis-live-video-stats

Stanford wins the all important doubles point with wins at 2 and 3. Ma and Yepifanova were pushing Broadus and Tien at 1 until Yepifanova tweaked an ankle or calf. She was not moving quite as well after that and Pepperdine finally got a service break in the final game to win 7-5.

Blokhina is not playing today so Hui and Xu move up to 4 and 5 with Yu stepping in at 6.

Stanford off to a great start at the top of the line up with Blake, Yepifanova and Ma all winning their first sets. Xu got smoked while Yu is dominating her opponent.

Update - Stanford wins 4-0!!

Match status:
Blake tied 6-4, 3-6, 1-0
Yepifanova wins 6-3, 6-3
Ma wins 6-2, 7-5
Hui down 5-7, 3-4
Xu down 1-6, 5-3
Yu wins 6-3, 6-2

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-06-2024

Well, that sure did not go to expectations! 

I absolutely love that response to how last Sunday vs. UCLA went. That Pepperdine team has the depth and talent to go toe to toe with anyone in the country, and I expect the Waves to make a deep NCAA run. And we handled them. I thought this was going to be a bruising fight, and instead, we end up with individual match scorelines that look like what I'd expect against a team ranked in the 40s, not one ranked #3. We got punched in the mouth, and we came back with a vengeance. That's the kind of mentality you want to see as we get closer to May. 

Some takeaways:

* First, the lineup. Ma got moved down, while Yepifanova got moved up. While you're all likely familiar with my view at this point that Ma is generally the better player, you have to take form into account, and this swap is a perfectly reasonable response to recent form. But any time you make a move like this, you wonder how the players will react. And both delivered. 
* Broadus is a top-10 player currently (not sure I agree with that as a general matter, but she's ranked there for the moment), and Yepifanova controlled her. Outstanding.
* Tjen has been ranked as high as #1 in the country in her history (if you recall, she burst onto the scene as a freshman at Oregon, but that was the only season she spent there). She can reach that gear, and she got closer to it in the second set against Ma, but Ma was equal to the challenge. 
* Every time Eleana Yu has slid into the lineup this year, she has delivered, and I love everything I've seen from her. She had no trouble chalking up a win. 
* As for the unfinished matches, they tell different stories. Hui was the only one on the verge of losing, but she was still very much in that second set and perhaps could've turned it around if necessary. Xu lost her first set going away, but she was about to win her second and force a third, so you like the momentum shift there. She could've folded, but that's good fight. And Blake won her first against another top-10 opponent in Zaar, lost the second, but was right there again to start the third. You can't say how it would've gone, but to be honest, anytime we play another top team, I pencil in Blake for a loss. Not that she hasn't delivered there on occasion, but I don't see her as usually on the same level as the other #1s on those teams. So anytime she's right there in a third set against a top player, that's a win as against expectations at least. 
* We got the doubles point against a really good doubles team, and Ma/Yepifanova were this close to giving Broadus/Tjen their very first loss of the season. 
* Hey, India Houghton! Jumped into doubles on the #2 line with Blake after Blokhina was a late scratch, and she helped deliver the doubles point with a 7-5 win. Some seniors don't respond well to being out of the lineup consistently, but that effort and result tell you all you need to know about Houghton's attitude. Love it. 
* That result means we now have 7 Top 25 wins: #3 Pepperdine; #8 Texas; #9 USC; #11 Texas A&M; #12 Ohio State; #13 Florida; and #21 San Diego (away). And because the win over USD was on the road, the 10% bonus means it's roughly equal to beating the #15 team at home or at a neutral site. While we now have to take the hit of a loss to UCLA in addition to the loss to Oklahoma State, that win over us also boosts UCLA's rankings, and now they're ranked #14, meaning the loss is also less painful going forward. 
* In terms of what's in front of us, we have just four regular season matches left: vs. #59 Oregon on Sunday; at unranked Wazzu next Friday; at #25 Washington Sunday the 14th; and at #10 Cal on April 19. (A road win over #25 is like a home win over #19/#20, and a road win over #10 is like a home win over #7.)
* So, that's two matches remaining that would deliver a lot of rankings value, and if we win both, we'd be at 9 top 25ish wins going into the Pac-12 tournament, where we'd be likely to play another match or two against the likes of Cal, USC, and UCLA. So we could still climb as high as #3 before NCAAs, which would be a nice place to be. (Right now, Oklahoma State is miles ahead of everyone, with a rankings average of 88.81; Michigan is second with 77.66; and then you've got four teams within decent reach of one another--Pepperdine at 67.42; UVA at 66.32; Stanford at 65.32; and UNC at 63.52. This win should be enough to vault us ahead of UVA and Pepperdine for now, but the question is whether we'll stay there over the next couple of weeks. UNC should climb as well, having just beaten UVA.)
* Looking at what's left for the teams around us in the rankings; #2 Michigan plays basically nobody and then will probably end up playing Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament final, since those are the only two teams of reasonable quality in the Big Ten this year--so it could be tough to stay at #2, but they already have nine very good wins, so they probably will; Pepperdine plays at Cal today, has UCLA next week, and has USD the week after, so they could get a few more quality wins, and maybe USD again in the WCC tournament--as it stands, Pepperdine has 7 top 25 wins; UVA is at #20 Duke tomorrow and gets #19 Miami and #28 FSU next week before the ACC tournament, so they've got chances as well--the ACC is such a deep conference; and UNC's win over UVA was their last opportunity for a quality win before the ACC tournament, as they get the basement of the conference over the next three matches.
Looking across the bay right now, Pepperdine won the doubles point over Cal, but it was very, very close. They currently lead 1-0, but Cal got the first sets in the four matches they'd need to win:

1. Viller Moeller (Cal) leads Zaar 6-0, 3-1
2. Tjen leads Alsola (Cal) 6-1, 3-2
3. Wiersholm (Cal) leads Broadus 6-2, 1-1
4. Mushika (Cal) leads Campana 6-2, 0-2
5. Redelijk leads Folch (Cal) 6-3, 1-0
6. Mi (Cal) leads Yang 6-3, 3-2

We can afford to be somewhat agnostic about how this one turns out, since both are on our schedule and both are pretty highly-ranked, but it's interesting to note that Pepperdine has already beaten Cal twice this season--the first time at Indoor Nationals, 4-2, and the second time a couple weeks ago in Malibu by a 6-1 score. If the Waves want to make it 3 for 3, they'll need to win a three-setter or two.
Viller Moeller crushed Zaar, 6-0, 6-1, and Lan Mi rolled over Vivian Yang 3&3, so it's 2-1 Cal. Redelijk is a game away from Pepperdine's second point, Tjen is a game away from what would be the third point, and Broadus has turned her match around and is up a double break in the second, while Mushika is a game away from beating Campana on 4. This one looks destined to be 4-3 either way, depending on how the Broadus-Wiersholm match turns out.
Tjen and Redelijk won to make it 3-2 Pepperdine. Campana fought back to force a tiebreaker on 4, which she won, and Broadus leads Wiersholm 3-2 in their third set.
Wiersholm turned it around and beat Broadus 6-4 in the third, so it's down to Campana-Mushika, and that one is 4-4 in the third. On a knife's edge!

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-08-2024

Cal ended up beating Pepperdine 4-3, slightly devaluing our own win over Pepperdine but slightly increasing the potential value over Cal if we can do that in a couple weeks. 

Stanford also closed out its home regular season slate with a 4-0 win over Oregon. Celebrating Senior Day, Houghton partnered with Blake in doubles and Geller entered the lineup for the first time all year at #3 doubles with Xu, and because it's Oregon, we had no trouble. Ma and Hui both sat in singles, but Blokhina returned, so that allowed Yu to slide up to 5 and for Houghton to get a final singles match in at Stanford at 6. Yepifanova won 6-0, 6-1 on Court 2, Blake won 6-1, 6-2 on Court 1, and Houghton made it a poetic ending by clinching the match with a 6-1, 6-2 win on Court 6. (Everyone else had won their first sets and was either on serve or up a break in the second, so this was destined for 7-0 if we'd played it out, as would be expected.) 

Not a lot of tennis left to be played this year, folks. Three road matches in the next 11 days, and then it'll be the final Pac-12 championships in Ojai before we return to Taube for what will hopefully be three matches (two in the Regionals plus the Super Regional) as part of NCAAs. 

Our best case roster of wins for our top 10 going into NCAAs looks like this:

1. #3 Pepperdine
2. #8 Texas
3. #9 USC*
4. #10 Cal (away)*
5. #11 Texas A&M
6. #12 Ohio State
7. #13 Florida
8. #14 UCLA (at Pac-12s)*
9. #21 USD (away)
10. #25 UW (away)

So, let's say we beat Cal in a couple weeks, then if we get two more against a combo of Cal/USC/UCLA in the semis and final and win those, then we're no longer counting the USD win, and we're not counting a single win outside the top 15. (In other words, our ten wins could be #3, #8, #9, #9, #10, #10 (away), #11, #12, #13, and #14.) That'll be a top 5 resume for sure, and depending on other results, likely #3. 

Of course, we lose some of those and we start to slip down a bit. But I don't think we'll drop out of the top 8. That would just mean a harder-on-paper NCAA quarterfinal, assuming we get that far.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-08-2024

Precisely what our seed will be at Pac-12s remains to be seen, and it'll depend on the next couple of weekends of course, but here's where things stand right now:

T1. UCLA (7-1) (two Pac-12 matches left, vs. UO and at USC) 
T1. USC (7-1) (2 left: vs. UO, vs. UCLA)
3. Cal (6-1) (3 left: at UW, at Wazzu, vs. us)
4. Stanford (5-1) (3 left: at Wazzu, at UW, at Cal)
5. UW (4-3) (3 left: vs. Cal, vs. us, at Wazzu) (losses to UCLA, USC, and ASU)
6. ASU (3-4) (3 left: at Utah, at CU, vs. UA) (losses to Stanford, Cal, UCLA, and USC)
T7. Arizona (2-5) (3 left: at CU, at Utah, at ASU) (losses to the same 4 plus UW)
T7. Utah (2-5) (3 left: vs. ASU, vs. UA, vs. CU) (wins over Oregon and Wazzu)
9. Colorado (1-5) (3 left: vs. UA, vs. ASU, at Utah) (win over Oregon)
10. Wazzu (1-6) (3 left: vs. us, vs. Cal, vs. UW) (win over CU)
11. Oregon (1-7) (2 left: at USC, at UCLA) (win over Wazzu) 

It's a circle at the top: USC's one loss is to us, our one loss is to UCLA, UCLA's one loss is to Cal, and Cal's one loss is to USC. (It's also a circle with the bottom three, which is interesting.) USC and UCLA will get to decide the higher seed among those two on April 19, right when Stanford and Cal will be doing the same. If USC beats UCLA and we beat Cal, then in theory we'd have the tiebreaker for the #1 seed, but we'd have one fewer conference win because our match vs. CU got rained out. Given how bad CU is, you'd hope that wouldn't become an issue, but in theory, we might have to play and beat CU at Ojai in order to claim the #1 seed. Might not be worth it, to be honest. Just give us the #2 seed and let us avoid tiring out our players. (You could also see a team demanding we play CU because if we lost to them, we might fall behind another team in the seeding. Can't imagine CU wanting an extra match they know they'd lose when they'll have their hands full surviving their first match. But given the clear distance between the top 4 and the rest, and the relative parity in the top group, might as well just get on with it.) 

As it stands, though, I don't see a whole lot of value in which seed you get. We're the best team in the Pac-12, sure, but pick your poison as to who you put at 2-4. So you're going to have to beat two of those teams to win the title, and I don't see the order making much of a difference. Given those remaining matches, here's how I think it goes:

1. UCLA (9-1)
2. Stanford (8-1) (UCLA's H2H win over us, and our H2H win over USC, makes the CU match irrelevant)
3. USC (8-2) (wins the H2H tiebreaker over Cal)
4. Cal (8-2)
5. ASU (6-4)
6. UW (5-5)
7. Utah (4-6)
8. Arizona (3-7)
9. Colorado (1-8) (sneaks ahead of the other two because it has a slightly higher win percentage if our match isn't required to be played)
10. Oregon (1-9) H2H over Wazzu
11. Wazzu (1-9)

So, in that case, #1 UCLA would play the 8-9 winner (which would be Arizona), #2 Stanford would play the 7-10 winner (which would be Utah), and #3 USC would get the 6-11 winner (which would be UW), and the rest would be a regular 8-team bracket. We'd be on track to get USC in one semi and it would be Cal-UCLA in the other.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-09-2024

New ITA rankings are out, and Stanford climbs to #3 on the strength of that Pepperdine win. Here's the top 25, plus the other teams on our schedule:

1. Oklahoma State (L)
2. Michigan
3. Stanford
4. UNC
5. UVA
6. Georgia
7. Pepperdine (W)
8. Texas (W)
9. Cal (Apr. 19)
10. USC (W)
11. Texas A&M (W)
12. NC State
13. Florida (W)
14. Auburn
15. UCLA (L)
16. Ohio State (W)
17. Tennessee
18. South Carolina
19. Miami
20. Oklahoma
21. Duke
22. San Diego (W, away)
23. Florida State
24. Georgia Tech
25. Wisconsin
***
26. Washington (Apr. 14)
31. Arizona State (W)
42. Arizona (W)
48. Utah (W)
52. Maryland (W)
53. UCSB (W)
67. Oregon (W)
75. Colorado (cancelled)

Not ranked: Pacific (W), UC Davis (W), St. Mary's (W), Washington State (Apr. 12).

So, you can see how the rankings giveth and how they taketh away. Right now, we get the points for beating the #3 team in the country. But that same win, in next week's calculation, will be only worth the points for beating the #7 team. Sigh. But we're still in good shape, as long as we finish the season well. As things stand, the #3 seed nationally is a pretty good place to be. It would mean a semi against Michigan and potentially a final against the winner of Oklahoma State-UNC, who will have just been through the wringer by playing the other. There's not a team in the country that I think we can't beat, but when you look at matches on paper, certainly there are some you feel slightly more confident in than others. And I would feel slightly more confident about getting past Michigan than I would either of the other two. I don't say that to call down the woofing gods by any means--I'm just looking at what the path would be and how it looks on paper. You still have to play the matches, and we could absolutely lose to Michigan. (Or to our QF opponent.)

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-09-2024

The latest singles and doubles rankings are also out today, and here's where our players land:

#10 Connie Ma
#24 Alexandra Yepifanova
#35 Angelica Blake

Aaaaaand that's it. No Xu or Blokhina, which tends to happen to players who play lower in the lineup as the season goes on. (In doubles, Ma/Yepifanova are #32.) 

But it doesn't happen to everyone. UNC has eight players in the singles rankings. Michigan has six. #1 Oklahoma State has five. So do Florida, Georgia, Duke, Texas, and Pepperdine. UVA, USC, and Cal each have four. So, Blokhina (7-3 on Court 4) and Xu (just 4-3 on Court 6) haven't played well enough to keep pace with some of the others. 

In dual matches this year so far, Blake has gone 5-3, all at Court 1. Ma has gone 15-2, including 3-0 on 1, 11-2 on 2, and 1-0 on 3. Yepifanova has gone 11-4, including 1-0 on 1, 2-2 on 2, and 8-2 on 3. Blokhina has gone 11-3, including 4-0 on 3 and 7-3 on 4. Hui has gone 11-2, including 1-0 on 2, 1-0 on 3, 1-0 on 4, and 8-2 on 5. Xu has gone 9-3, including 1-0 on 3, 3-0 on 4, 1-0 on 5, and 4-3 on 6. Houghton is 6-0, including 2-0 on 5 and 4-0 on 6. Yu is 5-0, including 1-0 on 4, 2-0 on 5, and 2-0 on 6. And Okpara is 1-0 on 6. Of course, the overall records can distort how the player has really performed, as the most relevant metric for assessing, say, Xu, is the 4-3 record at the singles line where we play her when everyone is healthy and we're playing a tough opponent. That she's 5-0 higher in the lineup just means that we play her higher when we're playing an overmatched opponent. 

For example, in the dual season in Spring 2022, Sara Choy was 21-4 on Court 6. That's what I expect from the player we put out there on Court 6.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - BobK - 04-12-2024

A great doubles win today coming from behind two wins at 7-6. Singles are looking very good for Stanford

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-15-2024

A nice 7-0 win over Wazzu on Friday and a 6-1 win over UW in Seattle yesterday means we have just one regular season match left: Friday at Cal. 

Blake and Blokhina both sat out singles against Wazzu, so Yu played 5 and Houghton played 6. No one had much of any trouble chalking up wins except for Ma at 1, who needed a match tiebreaker for the third to get there. Against UW, Blokhina was again out (starting to get a little concerned there), so Yu played 6 with everyone else sliding up a line. Doubles was less dramatic than it was against Wazzu, but Blake/Houghton did get crushed on line 2. If they'd played to clinch rather than playing it out, it would've been a relatively straightforward 4-0 win, with Blake rolling at 1 and Hui and Yu winning in straight sets. But the three remaining matches got complicated, with Xu shaking off a first-set bagel and winning her second and third sets 6-2 and 6-3 to make it 5-0. Ma lost her second set in a tiebreaker but then took the third 6-4 to make it 6-0. The final match was Yepifanova, who won her first set 6-2 but then lost tiebreakers in the second and third sets to give UW its lone point. A disappointing individual result, but 6-1 is a totally reasonable scoreline against a top 25-ish team, especially on the road. So, all in all, a pretty good weekend. 

For its part, Cal won 6-1 against Wazzu (Viller Moeller lost on Court 1) and 5-2 against UW (Cal lost doubles and Mushika lost a close one on Court 4).

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2024

New ITA rankings just dropped, and Stanford holds steady at #3:

1. Oklahoma State (L)
2. Michigan 
3. Stanford
4. UVA 
5. UNC 
6. Georgia 
7. Texas (W)
8. Pepperdine (W)
9. Cal (Apr. 19)
10. UCLA (L)
11. USC (W)
12. Texas A&M (W)
13. NC State
14. Florida (W)
15. Ohio State (W)
16. Auburn
17. Tennessee
18. Oklahoma
19. South Carolina
20. Miami
21. San Diego (W, away)
22. Georgia Tech
23. Florida State
24. Duke
25. Texas Tech
***
26. Washington (W, away)
31. Arizona State (W, away)
39. Arizona (W, away)
51. Utah (W)
53. UCSB (W)
58. Maryland (W)
61. Oregon (W)

Unranked wins: UC Davis, Colorado, Pacific, St. Mary's, Washington State

As of right now, the rankings are likely counting nine wins, so the ones that count for us are: #7 Texas, #8 Pepperdine, #11 USC, #12 Texas A&M, #14 Florida, #15 Ohio State, #21 San Diego (away), #26 Washington (away), and #31 ASU (away). If we beat Cal, we add #9 (away, which is like beating the #6 team at home) and drop ASU. If we add a couple of wins over the likes of Cal, USC, and UCLA in the Pac-12 tournament, we drop Washington, but the final pre-NCAA rankings count 10 wins, so our worst countable win at that point would be #21 (away), which is like beating #15 at home. Not bad at all. 

Here are the singles rankings:

#10 Ma
#32 Yepifanova
#35 Blake

And in doubles, we have #24 Ma/Yepifanova.

Looking ahead to Cal, here's how we'll probably line up:

1. #35 Blake vs. #38 Hannah Viller Moeller
2. #10 Ma vs. #81 Jessica Alsola
3. #32 Yepifanova vs. #45 Katja Wiersholm
4. Blokhina vs. Mao Mushika
5. Hui vs. Berta Passola Folch
6. Xu vs. Lan Mi

But #49 Valentina Ivanov has been out the last couple of weeks (no idea why, it's college tennis, no one tells us anything), so if she's back, then she'd likely be at #1 and everyone else would slide down a line. 

Given the above matchups, and keep in mind that this Cal lineup was good enough to beat Pepperdine, I think it would take a poor performance from us to lose. Entirely possible that happens--it's tennis, sometimes things just aren't working right--but I feel optimistic about how we'll do. Now, things get complicated if Blokhina misses more matches, or if Ivanov comes back in and we have tougher matchups throughout the lineup. But I like our odds.  

How to watch: https://calbears.com/sports/2013/4/17/208195810.aspx

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Sakibomb25 - 04-16-2024

What are your thoughts on Yu's play? If you were Lele right now, what would the line-up be? For me, it would be:
Of course that won't happen, but thoughts?

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-22-2024

Stanford beat Cal 5-2 on the road, and here's how it happened:

* Blokhina was back in the lineup, and Ivanov was back in the lineup for Cal, so it was first choice lineups on both side.
* We won the doubles point after Ma/Yepifanova rolled on Court 1, Blake/Blokhina dropped their match 6-3, and Hui/Xu clinched it 7-6 on Court 3. Big point.
* We made it 2-0 after Ma absolutely wiped Viller Moeller off the court on Court 2, 6-1, 6-0. Just a beatdown. 
* Cal pulled one back after Xu dropped a 6-3, 6-0 match on Court 6 to Lan Mi. Disappointing. But that's often the case with her.
* Then Hui lost 6-3, 6-4 to Mao Mushika (another blue chip freshman) to make it 2-2.
* Blake then beat Ivanov, 6-3, 7-5 on Court 1 to make it 3-2 Stanford with both remaining matches into third sets. 
* Both Yepifanova on 3 and Blokhina on 4 had similar stories to their matches--they both won competitive first sets over very good opponents, they both lost competitive second sets, and they both pulled away in the third set. Yepifanova clinched the win with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Katja Wiersholm, and Blokhina finished things off with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 win over Jessica Alsola. 
* I can't complain about Yepifanova or Blokhina having a tough time with their opponents--they played excellent opponents! You're not always going to roll over players of that caliber, and sometimes you're going to have to dig deep and fight. And they did that.
* Connie Ma hit that gear, huh?

So that's a 19-2 regular season, including a 8-1 conference mark that will give us the #2 seed in the Pac-12 tournament, which starts on Wednesday with the opening round matches--#8 Utah vs. #9 Colorado, #6 UW vs. #11 Wazzu, and #7 Arizona vs. #10 Oregon. 
* We'll get the Arizona-Oregon winner at 3pm on Thursday. 
* If we win that one (and, well, we'd better), we'll likely play #3 USC at 3pm on Friday. 
* And if we win that one, we'll get the winner of #1 UCLA vs. #4 Cal at 2:00pm on Saturday.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-22-2024

(04-16-2024, 12:46 PM)Sakibomb25 Wrote:  What are your thoughts on Yu's play? If you were Lele right now, what would the line-up be? For me, it would be:
  • Blake
  • Ma
  • Yepifanova
  • Hui
  • Blockina
  • Yu

Of course that won't happen, but thoughts?

Yu has done nothing to make me question her play, and I agree with you that she should be in the lineup. But I'd keep Blokhina above Hui--neither has been a model of consistency, but she's shown some big match ability that Hui hasn't quite equaled. I'd drop Xu and put Yu in her place, but otherwise keep the lineup the same. Lele must have her reasons for keeping Xu above Yu, though. 


The win over Cal kept us in the #3 spot nationally, but UNC is nipping at our heels after winning the ACC tournament. Right now, we have 71.677 and UNC is 70.608. 
* If we lose to USC in the Pac-12 semis, our score will drop below UNC and we'd end up as #4 team. 
* If we beat USC but lose to either Cal or UCLA in the final, we'd stay above UNC but we'd stay behind Michigan, so we'd be the #3.
* If we beat USC and UCLA or Cal, we might beat out Michigan to be the #2, but it will be very, very close. Looks like our odds of getting ahead of them would be better if it's UCLA we get in the title match rather than Cal. But either way, it'll be very tight. 
* Whether we're the #2 or the #3, we're looking at a NCAA quarterfinal against the likes of #6 Pepperdine, #7 Georgia, or #8 Texas. If UCLA makes the Pac-12 final but loses to us, it will probably climb to the #5 ranking, which would mean the rest of the rankings would be #6 UVA, #7 Pepperdine, and #8 Georgia. All of those teams are super good and could beat us depending on the day, so I don't know there's much particular value in playing one versus another. But the real benefit is in the semifinals, like I've been saying--I'd much rather play Michigan than Oklahoma State or UNC. Not woofing here, as we could absolutely lose to Michigan, too, but it's just a question of probabilities.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Spiny_Norman - 04-22-2024

(04-22-2024, 01:23 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote:  But the real benefit is in the semifinals, like I've been saying--I'd much rather play Michigan than Oklahoma State or UNC. Not woofing here, as we could absolutely lose to Michigan, too, but it's just a question of probabilities.

NCAA quarters, semis and finals will be played in Stillwater this year. It's going to be tough to get past Oklahoma State in any round. This is my annual rant that the NCAA ignores West Coast sites in favor of the South and Southwest for most of its championships. NCAA tennis last played west of the Rockies in 2011. After Stillwater, the championship will be in Waco, then Athens the next 2 years.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - bbm233 - 04-22-2024

(04-22-2024, 01:55 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  This is my annual rant that the NCAA ignores West Coast sites in favor of the South and Southwest for most of its championships. NCAA tennis last played west of the Rockies in 2011. After Stillwater, the championship will be in Waco, then Athens the next 2 years.

Is Taube adequate to host, and if so, is Stanford interested? If not, is it Ojai or bust for the west?

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Spiny_Norman - 04-22-2024

(04-22-2024, 03:43 PM)bbm233 Wrote:  
(04-22-2024, 01:55 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  This is my annual rant that the NCAA ignores West Coast sites in favor of the South and Southwest for most of its championships. NCAA tennis last played west of the Rockies in 2011. After Stillwater, the championship will be in Waco, then Athens the next 2 years.

Is Taube adequate to host, and if so, is Stanford interested? If not, is it Ojai or bust for the west?

This might just be me yelling into the void. To be considered for hosting a championship, a school (or a conference) has to apply. Maybe no one in the west wants to host or has the facilities to host.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - StanfordMatt - 04-22-2024

Not sure if the criteria have changed since then but Taube hosted both the women and men’s NCAA finals my senior year in 2006. The women won the title on their home courts.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - Jamesy - 04-22-2024

(04-22-2024, 08:44 PM)StanfordMatt Wrote:  Not sure if the criteria have changed since then but Taube hosted both the women and men’s NCAA finals my senior year in 2006. The women won the title on their home courts.

We don't currently meet the criteria to host, but after the in progress renovations are done, we should be able to.

RE: Women's Tennis 2024 - ColoradoTree - 04-26-2024

FYI, Stanford took care of 7th-seeded Arizona pretty handily, as expected. Took doubles with 6-4 wins on all three courts (the last one must have been a point or so away when the doubles point was clinched, since otherwise they wouldn't have played it out). And then we got straight-set wins from Blokhina at 4 (6-1, 6-2), Blake at 1 (6-3, 6-3), and then Xu at 6 for the clincher (6-2, 6-1). When it was clinched, Ma led 6-1, 5-5 on Court 2, but Yepifanova was a game away from losing, 6-3, 5-3, to Martyna Ostryzgalo--someone who has not won a conference match this entire season; she's 0-9. So, uh, that's bad! And then Hui was in a second-set tiebreaker after eating a bagel in the first set, so she could've been on her way out, too. So, while we won 4-0 and we move onto the next, those are two very eyebrow-raising unfinished matches. 

And the next is USC, today at 3pm. Here's how you can follow along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MruB__OyP9Q

This is one of the weirdest features of this point in the season: you get live scoring on a Youtube link of some computer screen where someone is manually inputting changes. Why we can't have any live streaming or a legitimate live scoring website is beyond me, but at least it's the last year of it. This is one area where the ACC move will help interested fans to follow along, with live streaming and some matches televised. 

Cal and UCLA are playing in the other semifinal right now--UCLA won the doubles point and it's early in singles.