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Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - Printable Version

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Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-18-2017

(Note: This is the third in a series of posts looking at this year's women's tennis season.  The first post, looking at roster turnover and preseason rankings, is here: http://thecardboard.org/board/index.php?topic=17444.0.  The second post, looking at the kickoff to the fall season, is here:  http://thecardboard.org/board/index.php?topic=17568.0.)

Tomorrow morning, the ITA Northwest Regional Championships kick off at Stanford, with every Stanford women's tennis player competing in the 128-player singles draw, and most competing in the doubles draw.  Also present will be the teams from ןɐɔ and Oregon from the Pac-12, as well as numerous other schools from Northern California (USF, UC Davis, ןɐɔ Poly SLO, Fresno State, Sac State, SJSU, Santa Clara, UOP, and St. Mary's) and the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, Seattle).  For some reason, Washington and Wazzu are skipping this year's tournament, though they have generally shown up in the past. 

What's at stake?

The singles finalists and the doubles champions will automatically qualify for the new ITA Fall National Championships held November 1-5 in Indian Wells and Palm Desert, CA.  And if Melissa Lord reaches the quarterfinals, her ranking would likely qualify her for an at-large selection to that tournament.

But there's also an element of pride.  This tournament is held on our home courts, and prior to last year, when Emma Higuchi fell to ןɐɔ's Karla Popovic in the championship match, Stanford players had won six straight Northwest Regional crowns.  (For the record, it goes 2015 - Taylor Davidson, 2014 - Carol Zhao, 2013 - Kristie Ahn, 2012 - Krista Hardebeck, 2011 - Nicole Gibbs, and 2010 - Ahn.)

What about the Stanford players?

Well, they're all playing, like I said, and more to the point, they're mostly seeded.  Melissa Lord is the tournament's #1 seed, freshman Michaela Gordon (!!!) is the #4 seed, Emma Higuchi is the #5 seed, Caroline Lampl is the #6 seed, Emily Arbuthnott is the #7 seed, and freshman Janice Shin nabbed a 9-16 seed.  That means they'll all get byes into the second round, which will take place late Thursday afternoon.  The rest of our players, including Kimberly Yee (the only nonseeded scholarship player), will be in action Thursday morning. 

Quick reminder on preseason rankings:  Lord is #7; Higuchi is #44; Lampl is #51; and Arbuthnott is #69.  Gordon is #2 in the "freshman/newcomer" rankings, which is unique to the preseason.  Once the fall season is over, they start lumping everyone together. 

Singles preview (results are further down the thread):

One thing I like about this tournament is that it gives all of our players, not just our scholarship players and those expected to play during the spring season, a chance to play matches and maybe make a run to show Lele why she should factor into the lineup. 

If seeds hold, Lord would play Oregon's Shweta Sangwan (#78) in the Round of 16 on Friday afternoon, and ןɐɔ's Olivia Hauger (#75) on Saturday at noon in the quarterfinals.  (Last year, Hauger played #4 for ןɐɔ, and lost to Lampl in three sets in the first meeting, and they were on serve in the third set when the match was suspended in the Pac-12 championship match.  Lord played Oregon's Sangwan in the Pac-12 tournament and was on the verge of beating her, up 6-3, 6-5, when the match was suspended.)  Basically, Lord should be a strong favorite over everyone else in this tournament, so I'd really enjoy seeing her grab this tournament by the throat and not let go. 

Gordon would play Fresno State's Katerina Stloukalova (NR) in the Round of 16, while she would run into Emma Higuchi in the quarterfinals, if Higuchi gets past ןɐɔ's Anna Bright (another freshman) in the Round of 16. 

Lampl would play ןɐɔ's Maria Smith (NR) in the Round of 16, and the winner between Oregon's Alyssa Tobita (#48) and Stanford's Janice Shin in the quarterfinals.  (Smith played #6 for ןɐɔ last year, where Higuchi beat her the first match handily and was leading the second match when it was abandoned in the Pac-12 championship.  Oregon's Tobita alternated playing #1 last year with Sangwan; Lord beat her in three sets in the first match, and Doyle had split the first two sets with her when the match was abandoned in the Pac-12 tournament.)

Arbuthnott would play Gonzaga's Sophia Whittle (#89) in the Round of 16, and San Jose State's Sybille Gauvain (#50) in the quarterfinals.  (Gauvain beat Lord in three sets in the quarterfinals of last year's Northwest Regionals, so she's deserving of her seed.)

If Stanford seeded players keep winning, it would be Lord meeting Arbuthnott in one semifinal, and the Lampl-Shin winner versus the Higuchi-Gordon winner in the other semi. 

Doubles preview:  The #1 seed is ןɐɔ's pairing of Karla Popovic and Olivia Hauger, but two Stanford teams are seeded: #4 Lord/Lampl and #5-8 Arbuthnott/Gordon.  The other doubles teams include Emma Higuchi/Kimberly Yee, and walk-on pairings Naomie Rosenberg/Paulette Wolak and Avanika Narayan/Elizabeth Yao.  Interestingly, freshman Janice Shin is not playing doubles, even though she and Arbuthnott were slated to play together at the ITA All-Americans and are the preseason #31-ranked pair, and Lord/Gordon are ranked #44.  Presumably, someone at the ITA asked Lele "who are your doubles pairings right now" and "who's your top doubles pair this year" before putting them together in the rankings, so we're obviously not set on the best possible doubles pairings.  (Compare to last year, when Arbuthnott/Davidson and Doyle/Lord stuck together from the beginning of the preseason through the NCAAs.  The Higuchi/Lampl pairing didn't come together until the spring season, however.  The year before, however, there was a lot of mixing and matching in the preseason.) 

This is a time for figuring that stuff out, though.  Chemistry in doubles is a funny thing, and sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and sometimes it's less. 

In any event, Lampl/Lord and Arbuthnott/Gordon will get byes into the second round on Friday morning, while the other three pairs will be in action Thursday morning. 

What does this mean for this season's lineup?

Because this tournament comes so early in the season and before many players have a record they can tout as a basis for a seed, the seeds here are a combination of preseason rankings and what the various coaches think about the relative quality level of each player.  Thus, we can probably read a little more into how the Stanford players are seeded, since Lele had a big hand in determining them.  The fact that Gordon is the next-highest seed from Stanford behind Lord, despite not having played a singles match yet this year, suggests to me that we could see her vault into the lineup even higher than past highly-touted recruits have.  And for Shin to be seeded while Kimberly Yee is unseeded suggests that Lele may have already determined that Shin is going to play #6 over Yee (which would be a further disappointment for the former blue-chip recruit, who was passed over in favor of two freshmen last year, and again this year). 

That said, because Higuchi, Lampl, and Arbuthnott, are closely bunched in both the seeds (5, 6, 7) and national preseason ranking (44, 51, and 69, respectively), I'm not sure we can glean whatever the final order of singles slots will be between those three players.  But Gordon being seeded ahead of all three suggests to me that, at a minimum, Lele is thinking of playing Gordon at #2 this year. 

How do I watch? 

In person at Taube.  Live video/audio here (though no live scoring): http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/?DB_OEM_ID=30600. 

Also, you can follow along with the draws and the completed matches at this link:  http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=211721

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - BobK - 10-18-2017

This is outstanding.  brobdingnagian thanks once again.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - oldalum - 10-18-2017

thanks for the detailed preview!

After watching Gordon play in Bank of the West qualifying this year, I am not surprised she is contending for the #2 slot; she is that good. The doubles pairings are interesting, we'll see how they work out.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-19-2017

FIXED RESULTS POST

Singles Draw:

Stanford in the Round of 128 (Thursday AM to early PM):

* Elizabeth Yao (JR) def. Jessica Walker (UC Davis), 6-3, 6-1
* Kimberly Yee (JR) def. Alisha Sharma (USF), 6-1, 6-1
* Susanne Boyden (ןɐɔ Poly) def. Avanika Narayan (FR)
* Sofia Wicker Velez (Sac State) def. Paulette Wolak (SR), 6-2, 6-0
* Rylee Braeden (Eastern Washington) def. Naomie Rosenberg (JR), 6-4, 6-2
* Jenna Dorian (Sac State) def. Taylor Lallas (FR), 6-2, 6-2

Note: This went largely as expected.  Good to see Yee roll over her opponent.  And happy for Yao that she won (always happy for walk-ons winning matches). 

Round of 64 (Thursday mid-to-late PM):

* (1) Melissa Lord def. Giannina Ong (Santa Clara), 6-1, 6-0
* Kate Ketels (Gonzaga) def. Elizabeth Yao, 6-2, 6-1
* (9-16) Emma Wilson (Fresno State) def. Kimberly Yee, 7-6(4), 2-2, retired.  (What Yee's injury is has not been disclosed.)
* (7) Emily Arbuthnott def. Mayan Sela (UOP), 6-1, 6-3
* (4) Michaela Gordon def. Mackenzie Worsnop (ןɐɔ Poly), 6-0, 6-0
* (5) Emma Higuchi def. Georgia Lawson (Fresno State), 6-1, 6-0
* Nevada Apollo (Gonzaga) def. (6) Caroline Lampl, 6-3, 6-4
* (9-16) Janice Shin def. Michelle Lui (Seattle), 6-1, 6-1

Note: Mostly as expected, but disappointing for Lampl and Yee. 

Round of 32 (Friday at 10:30am, delayed):

* (1) Melissa Lord def. Graciela Rosas (Gonzaga), 6-2, 6-0
* (7) Emily Arbuthnott def. Radina Dimitrova (Portland), 6-1, 6-2
* (5) Emma Higuchi def. Anna Sokiran (USF), 6-0, 6-0
* (4) Michaela Gordon def. Haruna Tsuruta (Gonzaga), 6-2, 6-1
* (9-16) Janice Shin def. Hanna Borjeson (USF), 6-2, 6-1

Round of 16 (Friday at 1:30pm, delayed):

* (1) Lord def. (9-16) Shweta Sangwan (Oregon), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
* (4) Gordon def. (9-16) Katerina Stloukalova (Fresno State), 6-3, 6-2
* (9-16) Anna Bright (ןɐɔ) def. (5) Higuchi, 6-3, 6-4
* (7) Arbuthnott def. (9-16) Sophia Whittle (Gonzaga), 6-0, 6-4
* (9-16) Shin def. Alyssa Tobita (Oregon), 6-3, 0-6, 6-4

Quarterfinals (Saturday at 12:00pm):

* (1) Lord def. 8-seed Olivia Hauger (ןɐɔ), 6-2, 6-1
* (7) Arbuthnott def. (3) Sybille Gauvain (San Jose State), 6-2, 6-3
* (4) Gordon def. (9-16) Anna Bright (ןɐɔ), 6-1, 6-0
* (9-16) Shin def. (9-16) Maria Smith (ןɐɔ), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(0).

Semifinals (Sunday, 10:00 am):

* (7) Arbuthnott def. (1) Lord 7-6(6), 6-4
* (4) Gordon def. (9-16) Shin 6-1, 6-0

Final (Monday, 11:00am):

* (4) Gordon vs. (7) Arbuthnott

Doubles:

Round of 64 (Thursday AM)

* Higuchi/Yee def. Apollo/Jacobs (Gonzaga), 8-5
* Bourguignon/Tsuruta (Gonzaga) def. Rosenberg/Wolak, 8-4
* Nelson/Worrall (Eastern Washington) def. Narayan/Yao, 8-3

Round of 32 (Friday at 9:00 AM, delayed)

* (1) Olivia Hauger/Karla Popovic (ןɐɔ) def. Higuchi/Yee by walkover (Yee withdrew due to injury)
* (4) Lampl/Lord def. Mya Bui/Emily Maxfield (USF), 8-2
* (5-8) Arbuthnott/Gordon def. Jennia Dorian/Sofia Wicker Velez (Sac State), 8-1

Round of 16 (Saturday at 10:00 AM)

* (4) Lampl/Lord def. Garley/Ketels (Gonzaga), 8-4
* (5-8) Arbuthnott/Gordon def. Rosas/Whittle (Gonzaga), 8-1 (Whittle is Gonzaga's lone ranked singles player, at #89)

Quarterfinals (Saturday at 2:00 PM)

* (4) Lampl/Lord def. Nasser/Rose (Oregon), 8-2
* (5-8) Arbuthnott/Gordon def. Stloukalova/Watanabe (Fresno State), 8-1

Semifinals (Sunday, following singles semifinals “after appropriate rest”)

* (1) Popovic/Hauger (ןɐɔ) def. (4) Lampl/Lord 6-4, 6-3
* (3) Sangwan/Tobita (Oregon) def. (5-8) Arbuthnott/Gordon 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (4)


Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-19-2017

The first round of doubles is in the books for Stanford.  Higuchi/Yee won their first round match 8-5, and advance to play the #1 seed (and #11 in the nation) pair of ןɐɔ's Olivia Hauger and Karla Popovic Friday morning.  (Popovic is also the #5-ranked singles player in the country, but has been working back from an injury, so she played singles but not doubles at ITA All-Americans, where she reached the Round of 16.  Because she likely guaranteed an at-large bid for the new ITA Fall National Championships with that appearance, combined with her high ranking, this may be the attempt to qualify for that tournament on the doubles side while not overtaxing herself by playing singles as well.  In any event, Popovic not playing is good news for Stanford players trying to reach that final and qualify, but bad news in the sense that I would have loved to see Lord and Popovic slug it out.) 

The two other Stanford duos competing this morning--all walk-ons--both lost, Rosenberg/Wolak by an 8-4 margin, and Narayan/Yao by 8-3.  They'll each get another match in the consolation draw, but more to get matches under their belts than to advance there, as that draw generally isn't played out. 

Happening right now is the first round of the singles draw, though the six players expected to feature in our singles lineup this spring won't start play until this afternoon, starting with Melissa Lord at 3:30 and then Emily Arbuthnott at 4:30.  But a nice run by Kimberly Yee, or less likely, one of our walk-ons, would help give Lele some confidence that if we suffer some injuries this spring, there are some players who can hold down the #6 spot in the lineup or even make the final decision on who plays #6 a tough one. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-20-2017

The Round of 64 in singles went mostly as expected, with a couple of exceptions.  On the positive side, Lord, Gordon, Higuchi, and Shin all rolled over their opponents, and Arbuthnott won her match handily as well.  On the negative side, Yee withdrew with an injury in the second set after losing a tiebreaker in the first set to her seeded opponent.  Frustrating, since Yee needed a good fall to make the case for being in the lineup this spring, and she gets injured. 

But Yee playing well and pushing for the lineup is something of a luxury, since it looks like our intended six singles players are already set.  That just makes Caroline Lampl's upset loss all the more frustrating, as Lampl played #4 last year and thus had pole position on the #2 spot this year, with Davidson and Doyle graduating.  I couldn't see all of her match, but losing to an unranked opponent (especially after dispatching a Top 30 opponent with ease at the ITA All-Americans) is disheartening, because last spring, Lampl's play could be somewhat uneven--not putting away opponents as easily as she could, playing down to their level a bit, and struggling with finishing off a match.  Now, this isn't to discount the quality of her opponent, as Nevada Apollo was a solid recruit out of HS who mostly played #1 for Gonzaga last year (albeit due to injury to their regular #1, who returns this year).  But Lampl is ranked #51 in the country right now, so the expectations, fair or not, are higher now. 

I don't remember a season off the top of my head where our lineup order was so much in flux in so many positions before the season started.  Lord at #1 seems like the only sure thing, but 2-6 don't seem firmly settled at all.  I'm not sure that's a bad thing, as it could add some competitive spice to practices going forward. 

Anyway, looking at the Round of 32, the 5 remaining Stanford players should all be strongly favored in their matches.  Arbuthnott plays Portland's #2, who has a history of being a tough out, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Arbuthnott challenged in that one.  Lord shouldn't be challenged too much.  Higuchi's opponent is a freshman from Russia, so she's a bit of an unknown.  Gordon and Shin both play solid players that played at multiple spots in the singles lineup for their respective WCC schools last year, so while they won't be easy outs, I still expect both of our freshmen to win handily.  The Round of 16, where the tests get tougher, follows quickly after at 1:30 this afternoon, so with wins this morning, we'd likely see the following matchups:

* (1) Lord vs. (9-16) Shweta Sangwan (Oregon)
* (7) Arbuthnott vs. (9-16) Sophia Whittle (Gonzaga) (Whittle is Gonzaga's #1, over the player that beat Lampl in R64, so if Arbuthnott does well here, you can break out the transitive property to guess where Arbuthnott and Lampl sit relative to one another in Lele's mind.)
* (5) Higuchi vs. (9-16) Anna Bright (ןɐɔ).  Bright is another freshman that should feature for ןɐɔ this year, so this would be a nice test for Higuchi, but one I expect her to pass.
* (4) Gordon vs. (9-16) Katerina Stloukalova (Fresno State)
* (9-16) Shin vs. (2) Alyssa Tobita (Oregon).  Tobita is a terrific player who, as noted earlier, pushed both Lord and Doyle to the brink in matches last year, so this a great early opportunity for Shin.  With Lampl's loss, we need Shin to come through to keep alive the dream of all-Stanford semifinals!

Consolation play also kicks off today, with Lampl joining walk-ons Rosenberg, Lallas, Narayan, and Wolak there, so Lampl's not done with singles play just yet.  She gets ןɐɔ's Vivian Glozman, a highly-touted freshman, so here's hoping Lampl finds the fire she was missing yesterday and takes it out on ןɐɔ.

As for doubles, both our remaining pairs should win handily, but the bigger tests are to come against the other seeded pairs.  Lord/Lampl would get the top-seeded pair of Popovic/Hauger from ןɐɔ in the semifinals, while Arbuthnott/Gordon would get the 2nd-seeded team, Bright/Glozman (also from ןɐɔ), in the quarters. 

Oh, and things will get started a little late today, as they're still drying off the courts.  No more rain in the forecast, though, so once the courts are dry, they should get all of today's matches in. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - oldalum - 10-20-2017

Lampl's loss is disappointing but I wouldn't make too much of one match -- she could have been ill, post-midterms, bad matchup, trying out some stuff she's working on, etc. She played well at Riviera, losing to the eventual champion in 3 sets. Where I'm hoping she will improve this year is to capitalize on her very strong ground strokes by coming up to the net more to finish off points, and continuing to improve her decision making on when to go for a more difficult shot versus continuing to rally. I thought she did much better at both last year and hope for further improvements this year.



Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-20-2017

(10-20-2017, 09:24 AM)oldalum link Wrote:Lampl's loss is disappointing but I wouldn't make too much of one match -- she could have been ill, post-midterms, bad matchup, trying out some stuff she's working on, etc. She played well at Riviera, losing to the eventual champion in 3 sets. Where I'm hoping she will improve this year is to capitalize on her very strong ground strokes by coming up to the net more to finish off points, and continuing to improve her decision making on when to go for a more difficult shot versus continuing to rally. I thought she did much better at both last year and hope for further improvements this year.

Of course, and you're right.  I guess I've just been hoping that we'd see Lampl make a similar leap that we saw Lord make last year, and that Lampl would really emerge this season, with an improved mental game to go with those powerful ground strokes.  There were a number of occasions last season where she had chances to clinch the match but lost tough 3-setters (I'm thinking of Ohio State and UNC in the NCAAs, and Vanderbilt earlier in the season). 

That said, she clinched her fair share of matches last year, too.  We don't win the regular season title without her win against ןɐɔ, we needed her win vs. Texas, and we really needed her win against TCU to advance in the tournament.  And until that North Carolina loss, she had a perfect 7-0 record in the NCAAs, which is crazy.  Fading late in 3-set matches wasn't as much of an issue her freshman year, but it was more prevalent last year against, to be fair, top-notch competition.  So, I don't mean to bag on Lampl, as no one on the team matches her competitive fire when playing.  I'm just hopeful that this is a blip, and she sharpens the mental side of things so that once she gets up a break, that set is over.  I'm mainly disappointed because that fire means I really like and root for Lampl, so the limited fall schedule means she's likely done with competitive singles matches (aside from consolation matches today and tomorrow) until January, which means fewer opportunities to fight for a higher lineup spot. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-20-2017

They're just getting started with the doubles matches now, so they're about 90 minutes behind schedule.  If that holds throughout the day, we can expect the Round of 32 singles matches today to start about noon, with the Round of 16 matches to follow around 3:00pm. 

UPDATE: Doubles started in a staggered fashion, so they're even further behind.  Lord's singles match just started at about 12:15 or so, and doubles is still going strong on most courts.

Both Stanford doubles teams handled their business, moving onto the Round of 16.  Arbuthnott/Gordon caught a bit of a break when ןɐɔ's Bright/Glozman lost their Round of 32 match this morning, meaning that they're now the only seed remaining in their quarter of the bracket.

As for singles, it was smooth sailing in the round of 32.  No one lost more than 3 games total in a match, and they all advance to play what should be tougher opponents in the Round of 16.  The results post above has the seeds of each opponent, but rankings-wise, #7 Lord plays #78 Sangwan, #44 Higuchi plays unranked Anna Bright (though freshmen are all unranked in the preseason), #69 Arbuthnott plays #89 Whittle, unranked Gordon (though she's the #2 "newcomer") plays unranked Katerina Stloukalova, and unranked Shin plays #48 Tobita.  I'd expect Lord, Higuchi, and Gordon to all win, while the Arbuthnott match should be close, and Shin winning would be a very welcome upset. 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - Lorcan - 10-20-2017

Gordon and Arbuthnott are both through to the semifinals, Higuchi and Lord both on court right now.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - oldalum - 10-20-2017

can't tell the scores, but Higuchi's opponent looks very good, Lord's not so much.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - Lorcan - 10-20-2017

Pretty sure that Higuchi just lost, Lord was pushed to three by her opponent. Interesting day.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-20-2017

An interesting afternoon. Lord struggled some against Sangwan, but settled in by the end of it, and very likely punched her ticket to ITA Fall Nationals on the strength of her ranking. Arbuthnott figured to face a struggle, but handled her opponent easily. Gordon cruises relatively handily. Higuchi struggled against a freshman from ןɐɔ who brought good power on her ground strokes and made for a poor matchup for the relatively slight Higuchi. And Shin, the least likely to win, took down Oregon’s top player and the #2 seed, shrugging off a bagel in the second set to come through in the third.  The upshot of all of it is that in the four quarterfinal matches tomorrow at noon, three pit Stanford against ןɐɔ. Can’t ask for much more than that!

Arbuthnott gets the #50 player in the country, so it’d be exciting to see her pull off another good win.

Gordon against Anna Bright will be an interesting matchup. Gordon seems better equipped to handle Bright’s power than Higuchi was.

Maria Smith was ןɐɔ’s #6 last year, and in her two meetings with Higuchi, the first was an easy Higuchi win and the second was much closer (being abandoned in the third when Stanford clinched). Excited to see how Shin does against her.

Hauger, Lord’s opponent, had two three-setters against Lampl last year, with Lampl winning the first, and the second being abandoned on serve in the third when the match was clinched. Lord should win. But Hauger, #75 in the country, will make her work for it.

Oh, and there was another Stanford-ןɐɔ matchup today, albeit in the consolation draw: Lampl took down freshman Vivian Glozman, splitting the first two sets and winning a super tiebreak to decide the match. ןɐɔ’s freshmen have looked good so far (obviously, with Bright beating Higuchi), but ours have looked even better.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-21-2017

When I thought Gordon would be a better matchup against Cal’s Anna Bright, I wasn’t thinking she’d be 6-1, 6-0 better!

Lord and Arbuthnott both rolled as well, setting up an all-Stanford semifinal on the top half of the bracket.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-21-2017

And it’s an all-Stanford semifinal on the bottom half as well, this one all-freshman to boot, as Janice Shin prevails in a third-set tiebreaker over ןɐɔ’s Maria Smith. She’ll face her classmate Michaela Gordon tomorrow for a place in the finals and the automatic ticket to ITA Fall Nationals that goes with it!

Both doubles teams advanced as well, but face tough roads in the semis: Lord/Lampl play top-seeded Popovic/Hauger from ןɐɔ while Arbuthnott/Gordon get Oregon’s top duo of Sangwan/Tobita. Only the champion gets the automatic spot at Fall Nationals, but the runner-up is eligible for an at-large berth.

On the singles front, Melissa Lord is almost certainly through to the ITA Fall Nationals, so if the goal were to maximize the number of Stanford entrants to that tournament, an Arbuthnott-Gordon final would give us three. But for Stanford’s success this season, I don’t want Lord to be the kind of player who struggles to beat Arbuthnott. And selfishly and from a tennis standpoint, I just really want to see Lord play Gordon. That could be one terrific display.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - Lorcan - 10-22-2017

Arbuthnott defeats Lord in straights, Gordon sweeps aside Shin.

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - oldalum - 10-22-2017

Both our doubles teams lost in the semis.

In singles Arbuthnott beat Lord 7-6, 6-4 I believe (not certain). For the couple of games I watched online, she was the better player. Hitting more aggressively and moving Lord around and finally ending points by hitting a fast winner out of Lord's reach. I hope this reflects Arbuthnott's improvement from last year and not Lord's deterioration! Looking like we could have a strong 1-4 this year!

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-23-2017

(10-22-2017, 07:39 PM)oldalum link Wrote:In singles Arbuthnott beat Lord 7-6, 6-4 I believe (not certain). For the couple of games I watched online, she was the better player. Hitting more aggressively and moving Lord around and finally ending points by hitting a fast winner out of Lord's reach. I hope this reflects Arbuthnott's improvement from last year and not Lord's deterioration! Looking like we could have a strong 1-4 this year!

I'm hopeful for that strong 1-4 as well.  In the last few years, this team has done well more often because of its depth, with near-guaranteed wins at #5 and #6, and getting two more points from elsewhere in the lineup or in doubles.  I'm excited for some dominance at the top of the lineup! 

Really impressive from Arbuthnott, and oldalum, I tend to think it's much more about Arbuthnott's improvement than Lord slipping.  Emily had a great offseason, winning a $15K ITF tournament and making a semifinal in another, and winning a doubles title at a different $15K tournament.  From what little I've seen so far, Arbuthnott is playing more quickly and is more aggressive than she was last year, when her matches seemed to take forever to finish due to her tendency to wear other players down and force them to make errors, rather than dictating play and ending it sooner.  If she's unlocked that particular skill, then I'm really excited to see what she has in store for us this year. 

And guys?  Michaela Gordon could be Top 10 by the time this season is over.  My goodness!  Just crushed her new teammate Janice Shin, just like she's been crushing everyone.  I know Lele isn't one to throw freshmen in at the top of the lineup, and I'm not saying she should supplant Lord, but Gordon has a pretty strong case for #2 from where I sit.  She took a player (ןɐɔ's Anna Smith) who solidly beat our most consistent singles player last year (Higuchi), and she made her look inept.  Janice Shin had taken out two seeded players in tough 3-setters, including #48 Alyssa Tobita of Oregon, and Gordon steamrolled her. 

By making the finals, both Gordon and Arbuthnott will be in the singles draw at ITA Fall Nationals, while Lord's lofty preseason ranking and resume so far make her a likely at-large selection to that tournament.  These kinds of tournaments are very big for a player's individual ranking, given the quality opponents one faces, so it will be a big opportunity for all three players to take stock of where they fit with the nation's best.  We won't have a doubles team there, unfortunately, as no Stanford team met the automatic criteria, and the at-large selections will be made mostly from the regional runners-up, so that was a pivotal supertiebreak to decide the match between Arbuthnott/Gordon and Sangwan/Tobita (in more ways than the obvious, uh, "it decided the match" sense). 

The singles final is at 11am today, so I know what I'll be doing on my lunch hour!

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-23-2017

If Gordon wins today, she won't be the first Stanford freshman to win it--she'd be the third Stanford freshman since 2010 to do it.  Krista Hardebeck won it as a freshman in 2012 (and did so in the best possible fashion, defeating four straight Cal players en route to the title).  Kristie Ahn won it as a freshman in 2010 over fellow freshman Nicole Gibbs (in a walkover--Gibbs was injured). 

Re: Women's Tennis Preview Vol. III: ITA Northwest Regional Championships - ColoradoTree - 10-23-2017

FYI, the live scoring is working on my phone, but not on my computer, so your mobile device may be the way to follow the action.  FYI, Arbuthnott just broke Gordon and consolidated to take an early 3-1 lead in the first set.  Both have taken turns dictating play with powerful ground strokes, great movement, and well-time changes of direction.  It's good tennis so far, folks, particularly from Arbuthnott.Â