Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - Printable Version
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RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-14-2024
FYI, the fall season comes to an end later this month at the NCAA singles and doubles championships in Waco, TX on November 19-24.
We don't yet have the brackets (those will be out Saturday), but we do know the seeded players, and two of ours are among them, and perhaps not in the order you'd expect: Glozman is the #5 seed, and Ma is the #7 seed. Blokhina is unseeded, as expected.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-18-2024
NCAA singles and doubles getting started in Waco tomorrow!
Tuesday, Nov. 19 (times in PT):
Singles Round of 64:
10:30am: #64 Blokhina vs. Valeria Ray, Vanderbilt (unranked)
11:00am: [5] Glozman vs. Zdena Safarova, Boise State (unranked)
1:00pm: [6] Ma vs. #79 Ekaterina Khayrutdinova, FIU
Note: rankings are preseason rankings, as the most recent set of rankings that reflect the fall season and support the seeding decisions here are not public-facing.
Wednesday, Nov. 20:
Singles Round of 32:
TBD
Doubles Round of 32:
Time TBD: Ma/Glozman vs. #5 Alina Mukhortova/Maria Sholokhova, Wisconsin
Note: Ma/Blokhina were the #19 preseason duo, while Xu/Glozman were #54.
FYI, here's the link to live scoring: https://ioncourt.com/tournaments/6739fbf93c78a1ac37fbea2b/live-score
Blokhina is on now and is up a quick double break at 4-0. Let's go Alexis!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-19-2024
Blokhina won her first set 6-1. And for her part, Glozman is up 3-0 early.
FYI, Eleana Yu gave South Carolina's Sarah Hamner a good fight, but she lost 7-6, 6-4.
* Blokhina leads Ray 6-1, 2-1
* Glozman leads Safarova 6-0
* Blokhina leads Ray 6-1, 5-2
* Glozman leads Safarova 6-0, 4-0
And Blokhina takes it 6-1, 6-3, while Glozman follows suit soon after with a 6-0, 6-2 win of her own. Onto the second round!
Ma should be getting on court shortly.
Blokhina's opponent tomorrow will be UVA's Elaine Chervinsky, the preseason #74 player, who beat ASU's Emilija Tverijonaite (the preseason #52 and a 9-16 seed) 7-5, 6-2.
Glozman will play Michigan's Lily Jones, the preseason #45 player, who beat UVA's Sara Ziodato (the preseason #48 player) 6-4, 6-4.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-19-2024
Ma is on court now against Khairutdinova, and she's starting slowly. Khairutdinova held at love, and then Ma was broken for 2-0. But she just broke back, so hopefully that's a good sign!
Then Ma was broken again, and then she broke back again. Ma trails 2-3, but she's going to need to start holding serve one of these times....
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-19-2024
Reader, she started holding serve. She rattled off four straight to take the first set 6-3, and she kept it rolling--she's now up 4-1 in the second.
Ma won it 6-3, 6-2, and she'll play Cal's Mao Mushika (preseason #107) in the next round, who won by the same scoreline over Auburn's Angella Okutoyi (preseason #82).
Three Card in the final 32!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - magnus - 11-19-2024
Thanks for the updates!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-20-2024
Singles Round of 32:
8:30am: [5] Glozman vs. Lily Jones, Michigan
8:30am: Blokhina vs. Elaine Chervinsky, UVA
10:00am: [6] Ma vs. Mao Mushika, Cal
Doubles Round of 32:
3:30pm: Ma/Glozman vs. Mukhortova/Sholokhova, Wisconsin
In the early going, Glozman is up a break at 2-0, while Blokhina is serving to start things off in her match.
Glozman served up a bagel in her first set, 6-0, but Jones woke up and Glozman now trails 0-3 in the second.
Blokhina just dropped her first set 6-3.
Ma is out to a 3-0 lead.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-20-2024
Ma won her match over Cal's Mushika in routine fashion, 6-2, 6-2. Congrats on being an All-American, Connie!
Glozman dropped her second set and was down 5-1 in the third set before she stormed back and forced a tiebreaker that she then won 7-2, so that's a 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 win for her. Congrats on being an All-American, Valerie!
For her part, Blokhina dropped her match to UVA's Chervinsky 6-3, 7-5. Good fight from Alexis, but unfortunately she falls just short.
In the Round of 16 tomorrow, Ma will take on the winner of #9 Nicole Khirin of Texas A&M and #70 Sabine Rutlauka of Penn (at the moment, Khirin is up a break in the first at 5-3), while Glozman will face #43 Theodora Rabman of UNC, who knocked off Denver's Andrea Beltran 7-5, 6-2.
If Ma ends up facing Rutlauka, it'll be a rematch from earlier in the fall--Ma beat her 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of ITA All-Americans at the end of September. And Khirin beat Michigan's Jones 7-5, 7-5 last week at the Central Sectionals, so that suggests it would be a pretty competitive match.
Khirin will be Ma's opponent after beating Rutlauka 6-4, 6-1, so that's a tough match for Ma. Last year, when Stanford knocked off then-No. 2 A&M 4-3 early in the season, Khirin beat Ma 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-21-2024
Ma and Glozman lost in doubles, 6-4, 6-2, so we're down to singles. Both matches are scheduled to start at 8am, so good luck to Connie and Valerie!
You can live stream on ESPN+, too, so that's pretty darn cool!
Glozman is up an early break at 4-3, while Ma is all tied up at 4-4.
Khirin just held for 6-5 up, so Ma will now serve to force a first-set tiebreaker. And Glozman, serving for her first set up 5-4, just fought off a couple of break points to take the first set!
Ma couldn't get a lead on Khirin in that service game, going behind 0-15, 15-30, and 30-40, and Khirin cashed in, taking the first set 7-5.
Ma was up a break in the second at 2-1 but gave it back, and then Khirin then easily held to go back up 3-2. But as for Glozman, she just went up a double break at 4-1, so she's eight points away from the quarterfinals. Ma has to find something, though.
Ma isn't finding it. Just got broken again, and Khirin senses she's got Ma beat mentally.
Opposite story in Glozman's match, as she's now two points away: up 6-4, 5-1, 30-30.
Glozman is into the quarters with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rabman! Congrats! She'll play #16 Julia Garcia Ruiz from Oklahoma, who knocked off Auburn's Merna Refaat (an Egyptian freshman who has had a great fall), who in turn knocked off 4th-seeded Elza Tomase of Tennessee the round before.
Ma locked it up a little there, breaking back for 3-4 down before holding quickly for 4-all. Back on serve at least! But Khirin held for 5-4 up, so Ma will serve to stay alive.
A quick hold for 5-5! And then a quick break to go 6-5 up! Keep it up, Connie! She'll serve for the second set next.
Ugh. Khirin takes deciding point, and it's a tiebreaker.
Khirin up a mini-break at 4-2 as they change ends.
Now 4-3 Khirin. 5-3. Then 5-4 as Ma gets the mini-break back. Then 6-4 as Khirin gets another mini-break. Ma gets it to 6-5. And then 6-6 as Ma gets the mini-break back! Fought off two match points and they'll change ends again.
Ma gets her own mini-break to go up 7-6! And with the set on her racquet, she delivers! Takes the tiebreaker 8-6 and this match--that has already gone on for 2 hours and 19 minutes--will go to a third set. Exhausting just following this nonsense.
Ma just didn't have enough left, and she falls 6-3 in the third. Tough match, and a good fight all around.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - OCcardinal - 11-21-2024
(11-21-2024, 06:13 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Ma just didn't have enough left, and she falls 6-3 in the third. Tough match, and a good fight all around.Reading your play by play was so fun. Thanks! (Too bad about Ma though.)
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 11-22-2024
At 8am, Glozman will take on Oklahoma's Julia Garcia Ruiz. Interestingly, all the other quarters are on at the same time (and they did the same thing in the Round of 16--all the matches at the same time). I can understand that from a competitive perspective, as you keep the rest for each player as comparable as you can, but it is directly at odds with the whole point of moving the individual championships to the fall! The NCAA did this to grow the sport and shine a brighter spotlight on college tennis. But rather than schedule the matches as pro tournaments do--stagger the marquee matches so there is always a good match on TV--they have them all on at the same time!
Imagine the NCAA basketball tournament with all first round games at the exact same time for competitive fairness rather than the all-day smorgasbord we get those first two days of the tournament.
I mean, there's a reason the Order of Play for pro tournaments doesn't come out until the night before--they want to see who wins the previous round and what matchups they can highlight and give the timeslots that will attract the most attention. And even if that's unlikely right now for college tennis in the fall, you make it impossible for even dedicated fans to watch multiple matches to get a sense of the games and personalities of the top players in the country.
OK, that's my gripe. Let's go Val!
Yeesh, Glozman is getting worked. Trailing 6-1, 5-1. Well, um, it would be one heckuva comeback if she were to pull it off!
(She didn't.)
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 12-03-2024
The final ITA individual rankings of the fall season were announced today--they're computer rankings based on fall results--and here's where Stanford players landed:
#6 Glozman (up from #69)
#12 Ma (down from #4)
#97 Blokhina (down from #64)
#107 Xu (down from #77)
Hui and Houghton drop out of the rankings entirely, having been ranked #76 and #85, respectively, in the preseason. But when you don't play matches, you're obviously not going to pick up computer ranking points!
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 12-31-2024
Just noticed a tweet from Parsa Nemati, a reliable source on ncaa tennis transfer news and commitments, stating that former Denver University Pioneer Caroline Driscoll is transferring to Stanford for this spring season.
Driscoll shouldn't feature in our lineup unless calamity happens--she was a 5-star recruit, and one of those hasn't cracked our lineup in years. If you're only playing #3 singles at a place like DU, you're not making our lineup.
It adds to our depth, but if Driscoll is playing #6 for us, we've presumably got bigger problems higher up the lineup that is getting her in there.
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - TheFarm07 - 12-31-2024
(12-31-2024, 01:16 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Just noticed a tweet from Parsa Nemati, a reliable source on ncaa tennis transfer news and commitments, stating that former Denver University Pioneer Caroline Driscoll is transferring to Stanford for this spring season.
Driscoll shouldn't feature in our lineup unless calamity happens--she was a 5-star recruit, and one of those hasn't cracked our lineup in years. If you're only playing #3 singles at a place like DU, you're not making our lineup.
It adds to our depth, but if Driscoll is playing #6 for us, we've presumably got bigger problems higher up the lineup that is getting her in there.
Thanks for the update ColoradoTree. Well, hopefully if it's not an emergency situation and we are just adding Driscoll for depth purposes, what would be a reason tennis-wise she would want to transfer here when she was getting playing time at Denver? We often see players transferring to get more playing time, except maybe she really wants to be on a national title winning team?
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 01-06-2025
(12-31-2024, 01:57 PM)TheFarm07 Wrote:(12-31-2024, 01:16 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Just noticed a tweet from Parsa Nemati, a reliable source on ncaa tennis transfer news and commitments, stating that former Denver University Pioneer Caroline Driscoll is transferring to Stanford for this spring season.
Driscoll shouldn't feature in our lineup unless calamity happens--she was a 5-star recruit, and one of those hasn't cracked our lineup in years. If you're only playing #3 singles at a place like DU, you're not making our lineup.
It adds to our depth, but if Driscoll is playing #6 for us, we've presumably got bigger problems higher up the lineup that is getting her in there.
Thanks for the update ColoradoTree. Well, hopefully if it's not an emergency situation and we are just adding Driscoll for depth purposes, what would be a reason tennis-wise she would want to transfer here when she was getting playing time at Denver? We often see players transferring to get more playing time, except maybe she really wants to be on a national title winning team?
Could just be an academic decision--you've realized playing tennis isn't your future, so get yourself a Stanford degree and use the "Stanford Women's Tennis" to perhaps help with being a coach or a teaching pro in the future?
But tennis-wise? Not sure. Maybe she's improved in the offseason and has a chance to play 6?
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - BostonCard - 01-06-2025
"she was a 5-star recruit, and one of those hasn't cracked our lineup in years"
In most sports, a 5-star recruit is the highest rating a recruit can get, but I've seen you refer to blue-chip recruits as the highest categories. For those of us who don't follow as closely, can you describe the various levels of recruit in collegiate tennis?
BC
RE: Women's Tennis: Fall 2024 Season - ColoradoTree - 01-06-2025
(01-06-2025, 12:08 PM)BostonCard Wrote: "she was a 5-star recruit, and one of those hasn't cracked our lineup in years"
In most sports, a 5-star recruit is the highest rating a recruit can get, but I've seen you refer to blue-chip recruits as the highest categories. For those of us who don't follow as closely, can you describe the various levels of recruit in collegiate tennis?
BC
I know I've done an explainer like this before, and I just tried searching the site for it, but apparently I've posted too much about topics like this to be able to find that particular one!
Anyway, the Tennis Recruiting Network (tennisrecruiting.net) ranks players by the usual number of stars we see in other sports, but the number of players within each star rank are lower than, say, football, and there's some grade inflation at the top.
In football (using the current ESPN Top 300), the top 20 or so players are five-star players, and 21-300 are ranked as four-star players. With women's tennis, the top 25 or so are "blue chips" according to TRN, and then there are about 50 five-star players, and then about 125 four-star players, and then three stars on down after that. In other words, Stanford's lineup exclusively comes every year from players that were top 25 recruits in their particular classes, and usually much higher than that.
One very big caveat: that only applies to American recruits (and the odd international recruit that is US-based and thus plays enough locally here to be absorbed by the system). It omits international recruits for the most part, and there is no umbrella recruiting ranking system for international recruits. You have the ITF junior world ranking, of course, but that's a point system like the ATP and WTA tours use, so it shows how many tournaments you've played and how many points you've amassed, but it exercises no independent judgment as to how promising of a recruit you are.
Looking at the class of 2025, Ahn is currently the #2 recruit, Ekstrand the #3 recruit, and Wang is the #4 recruit. (That's behind #1 Akasha Urhobo, who has already turned pro, so we have all top 3 incoming US-based recruits.)
Glozman was the #1 recruit last year. Hui and Yu were the top two in theirs, with Yu #1 for most of the time. The year before that, Blokhina finished at #3 but was more like 5-6 during her senior year, and Emma Sun peaked as high as #10 but was more often in the high teens and twenties. The year before that, Ma was #1, Yepifanova was mostly right behind her, and Xu was toward the bottom of the top 10.
Anyway, long story short, but while five-star football recruits are expected to be instant-impact guys at top programs, five-star women's tennis recruits rarely crack the lineup at top programs because of that extra layer of blue chips on top. And that's before you mix in the international recruits, which dominate a lot of rosters these days.
Oh, the preseason team rankings dropped today, and we're #3. I don't know if that factors in Yepifanova or not, but my guess is yes. I think we're a national title contender with her, but not without her. (And fwiw, I have no information as to whether she'll play.)
Here's the top 25, with scheduled opponents in italics:
1. Georgia
2. Texas A&M
3. Stanford
4. Oklahoma State
5. UCLA
6. UNC
7. Texas
8. Michigan
9. UVA
10. Pepperdine
11. Duke
12. Auburn
13. Cal
14. NC State
15. Ohio State
16. Oklahoma
17. USC
18. Tennessee
19. Florida
20. South Carolina
21. Vanderbilt
22. Alabama
23. Miami
24. Florida State
25. UCF
Sad to see that Pepperdine is apparently a scheduling casualty of the move to the ACC. With the Pac-12 having an odd number of teams, we'd been scheduling them the same weekend as we played Oregon, since Oregon State didn't have a team, but now our dance card is pretty full. (Though Cal is making it work--they're playing Pepperdine twice this season, and UCLA and USC are both playing the Waves, too.) And it's their own dang faults that USC/UCLA are off the schedule by bolting for the Big Ten in the first place, but I'm still sad to see the end of those matches, too.