Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats

Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - Printable Version

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Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-15-2019

The conference season continues this weekend as #5 Stanford hosts Arizona State today at 1:30pm, and Arizona tomorrow at noon.

Season so far

Arizona's middling overall record (8-5) and 0-2 conference mark is unsurprising. But the fact that they lost just 4-3 to UCLA is absolutely shocking. (Arizona lost doubles but won the three back courts in singles against UCLA.) The 6-1 loss to USC is more what I'd expect, except for Arizona's Emma Wilson knocking off #45 Salma Ewing. Arizona plays at Cal the same time we're hosting ASU, so we'll get another data point as to whether the UCLA match was a fluke or a sign of an improving team.

ASU (5-6, 0-2), by contrast, is a team I expected to be in the top half of the conference this year. They still might, and losing to UCLA and USC is still consistent with that, but they haven't beaten anyone good yet. Close losses to the LA schools (and to Ohio State) could suggest a team ready to break through, however. Against UCLA, the Sun Devils won doubles and #2 singles, but lost three-set matches on #3 and #5 on the way to a 4-2 loss (the match at #6 was on serve late in the third set when the match was abandoned). Against USC, ASU again won doubles and #2 singles, and won a three-setter on #5 in the process of losing 4-3. USC needed tight wins on #1 (5-7, 6-3, 7-5) and #4 (5-7, 7-6, 6-4) to pull it out.

Last time we played

Stanford beat ASU 4-0 last year, behind the doubles point (wins from Lampl/Yee and Lord/Shin) and singles wins from Higuchi, Arbuthnott, and Gordon (Gordon was actually the first match off court, thrashing John-Baptiste 6-3, 6-0). Both Lord and Lampl were down a set and a break, however, and were both a game away from losing their matches. Shin had lost her first set but had pulled ahead in the second. A closer match than the score indicates.

Against Arizona last year, we won 5-0 because match point was in progress when the match was clinched, so that got played out. Doubles wasn't close, and we got straight set wins from Higuchi (double bagels), Lord (6-1, 6-3), Arbuthnott (6-1, 6-0), and Gordon (6-2, 6-1), with Lampl leading 6-4, 5-1. Shin was the only one with a match on her hands; she took the first set 6-4 but was down 0-3 in the second when the match was abandoned.

Lineups

Arizona State:

1. Ilze Hattingh
2. Lauryn John-Baptiste (she played #1 last year and was ranked for much of the year)
3. Tereza Kolarova
4. Savannah Slaysman
5. Sammi Hampton
6. Samantha Alicea

The only ranked singles player on ASU's team is freshman Cali Jankowski (#102) on the strength of her fall season, but she hasn't cracked the dual lineup yet, though I don't know whether that's due to injury or an entrenched singles ladder. ASU's #1 doubles team of John-Baptiste/Hattingh, however, is ranked #6 in the country, which should make for a great match with #11 Lampl/Yee

Arizona:

1. Emma Wilson
2. Camila Wesbrooks
3. Marie Van Aelst
4. Talya Zandberg
5. Gitte Heynemans
6. Csenge Furak

In an effort to be more competitive, Arizona has long been one of the Pac-12 schools that emphasizes recruiting internationally, and the result is Wesbrooks being the Wildcats' only American starter. (By contrast, ASU's top 3 are international students, but the #4-#6 players are Americans.)

Preview

We should win both matches, though ASU should be closer and there's a more realistic chance of an upset there, particularly if ASU pulls off the doubles point. But ultimately, I think our depth will be too much. Gordon (if she's healthy) and Lord will be tested, but it's hard to envision losses on Courts 3 through 6 against either Arizona team. ASU's doubles strength appears to be at Courts 1 and 3, which is also where we get most of our wins, so it'll be strength on strength there. If Gordon's absence from the singles lineup against Oregon was injury-related and not just rest, then things obviously get a little tighter, but I still think our depth is too much.

Even with 7-0 wins against both teams, expect our ranking to keep dropping next week, as neither one of these teams is ranked. Next weekend won't help either (home dates vs. Hawaii and UC Davis). It'll be the last weekend in March before we have the potential to turn our ranking around (with road matches against UCLA and USC).

How to watch

Same as always: http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/?DB_OEM_ID=30600

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-15-2019

ASU just took the doubles point with a 6-4 win on Court 1. Live scoring isn't working on Chrome (it's still showing the scores from the last men's match), but Arbuthnott/Gordon won 6-1 on Court 2, and Lord/Madurawe took a loss. I believe that's the first time they've dropped the doubles point all season.

The ASU lineup is much like we expected, but Lord and Gordon have traded places in the lineup, with Lord at 1 and Gordon at 2. Interesting!

1. #41 Lord vs. Hattingh
2. #22 Gordon vs. John-Baptiste
3. #51 Lampl vs. Kolarova
4. #17 Arbuthnott vs. Hampton
5. #55 Shin vs. Slaysman
6. #63 Higuchi vs. Alicea

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-15-2019

Arizona State 1, Stanford 0

1. Lord trails 5-1 (Lord scuffling at the moment; nothing coming easily; Melissa can't get out of her own way right now)
2. Gordon leads 4-2 (Gordon was very sharp the first three games, but John-Baptiste has settled in a little bit)
3. Lampl leads 5-2 (seems to be settling in after a bit of a slow start)
4. Arbuthnott leads 5-0 (just cruising)
5. Shin leads 4-2
6. Higuchi leads 4-2

Arizona State 1, Stanford 0

1. Lord trails 1-6, 1-1
2. Gordon leads 6-2, 0-0 (Gordon has been all over John-Baptiste's serve)
3. Lampl leads 6-2, 2-0
4. Arbuthnott leads 6-1, 0-2 (after playing one of her sharpest sets in the first, Arbuthnott has started very slowly in the second)
5. Shin leads 6-3, 0-0
6. Higuchi leads 6-3, 0-0

Lord's set was the first one done, then Lampl, followed quickly by Arbuthnott. Then a little while before Gordon got hers, then Higuchi, and Shin was the last.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-15-2019

Stanford 1, Arizona State 1

1. Lord trails 1-6, 2-5 (down a break, making all kinds of unforced errors, and going nowhere fast)
2. Gordon leads 6-2, 3-1 (up a break)
3. Lampl wins 6-2, 6-0 (not even playing around)
4. Arbuthnott leads 6-1, 3-3 (lost the first three games of the second set, but seems to have found herself again)
5. Shin leads 6-3, 2-1
6. Higuchi leads 6-3, 2-2 (both players struggling on serve here)

Singles order: 3 (and Lampl won like 15 minutes ago, too--it was a shellacking)

Arizona State 2, Stanford 1

1. Lord loses 1-6, 2-6 (Hattingh is underrated, to be sure, but this was a very flat performance from Lord today, hardly the thing that'll inspire confidence to keep her in that spot)
2. Gordon leads 6-2, 4-1 (up a double break)
3. Lampl wins 6-2, 6-0
4. Arbuthnott leads 6-1, 4-3 (has won 4 straight games)
5. Shin leads 6-3, 2-2
6. Higuchi leads 6-3, 3-2

Singles order: 3; 1

Stanford 3, Arizona 2

1. Lord loses 1-6, 2-6
2. Gordon wins 6-2, 6-1 (Michaela looked so sharp today)
3. Lampl wins 6-2, 6-0
4. Arbuthnott wins 6-1, 6-3 (aside from the first three games of the second set, Arbuthnott was absolutely locked in)
5. Shin leads 6-3, 2-4
6. Higuchi leads 6-3, 5-2

Singles order: 3; 1; 4; 2

It's all set up for Higuchi to close it out now, as Shin is struggling a bit in the second set.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-15-2019

Higuchi wins her second set 6-3 to clinch the Stanford win!

Shin is playing out her match, and she’s now up 6-5 in the second set.

Shin wins the second set tiebreaker, and it’s a 5-2 Stanford win over the Sun Devils.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ca245 - 03-16-2019

What is our policy on scheduling regular season competition during dead & exam weeks? I thought that we didn't do that, but I see that WT and a couple of other sports are active this weekend while BB and SB are off. Is it a team-by-team decision?

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - BostonCard - 03-16-2019

I think the only thing we try to avoid is scheduling non-tournament out of conference matches. That's why, for example, the basketball teams don't play dead week and finals. Those games are largely under our control, so we make the effort to avoid them.

We can't change the schedule for conference games or tournament games. That's why March madness often happened during finals week. Of course, recently that's only been a concern for the women's teams.

BC

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-18-2019

Not surprisingly, Arizona was no match for us. We won doubles handily, Higuchi was first off court with a double bagel, Gordon served up a couple of breadsticks (6-1, 6-1) soon after (still playing at #2), Lampl clinched with a 6-1, 6-2 win at #3, Arbuthnott piled on with a 6-2, 6-2 win, and Shin made it 6-0 with another dominating win, 6-2, 6-1. Lord was the only one to be challenged, but she figured it out, winning 7-6, 6-3 over Emma Wilson, who is far and away Arizona's best player. (Wilson pushed Cal's Julia Rosenqvist to three sets, with Rosenqvist winning 6-4 in the third. She lost, 4 and 2, to UCLA's Jada Hart, but beat USC's Salma Ewing 6-3, 6-4, so she's a solid player. A much better performance from Lord than against ASU's Hattingh, that's for sure. (Still can't believe Lord lost 6-2, 6-1 to her; Hattingh lost 5-7, 7-3, 7-5 to USC's Ewing, 7-6, 6-4 to UCLA's Hart, and 6-4, 6-3 to Cal's Rosenqvist.)

Cal also beat Arizona 7-0 and Arizona State 5-2, by the way. Cal won the doubles point, however, and ASU got singles wins on Courts 2 and 4 (by contrast, Gordon lost just 3 games total on Court 2 vs. John-Baptiste, while Arbuthnott lost just 4 against Sammi Hampton).

Elsewhere around the conference:

* USC beat Baylor 4-2 (not currently ranked, but Baylor is a team that usually finds its way into NCAAs, so this win may be worth something in the final analysis)

* UCLA was idle over the weekend, but lost 4-0 to Pepperdine in Malibu on Wednesday. (Pepperdine then followed that up with a 5-2 win over Texas in Austin on Saturday, so Pepperdine did a number on our rankings this week alone. We'd have the potential to benefit from that if we'd kept Pepperdine on the schedule this year, but alas, we did not.)

* The Washington schools both took care of Oregon, UW by a 7-0 score and Wazzu by a 4-1 score. (Wazzu also beat Fresno State 4-1 in Fresno.)

* Utah also beat Fresno State and beat BYU 4-3 in a great rivalry match.

* Colorado beat Colorado State 4-1.

Around the country:

* #2 Georgia beat #7 South Carolina on the road (4-2) as well as #34 Florida (4-1)

* #4 Vanderbilt lost to #29 Texas A&M 4-2, and then turned around and beat #19 LSU 4-3 (LSU also lost 4-3 to #21 Kentucky, which isn't super useful for our rankings).

Current Pac-12 Standings

T1. #9 Washington (13-1, 3-0)
T1. #5 Stanford (10-1, 3-0)
T1. #14 Cal (8-3, 3-0)
T4. #6 UCLA (9-3, 2-0)
T4. #17 USC (11-2, 2-0)
T6. Utah (10-3, 1-1)
T6. Colorado (8-7, 1-1)
8. #36 Washington State (15-4, 1-2)
T9. Arizona (8-7, 0-4)
T9. Oregon (6-9, 0-4)
T9. Arizona State (5-8, 0-4)

Arizona State has got to be the best 5-8 team in the country, but that doesn't get you much. Great at doubles, a good 1 and 2, and the potential to get a fourth point at several points in the lineup. All four conference losses have been competitive, but 0-4 is still 0-4.

FYI, the rankings above are from last week. Expect us to fall a bit again with the new rankings tomorrow, and to fall again after the rankings the next week.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-18-2019

The swapping of Lord and Gordon in the top two spots of the lineup remains interesting to me. Prior to the move, Gordon had lost three in a row, but you can't get too mad when two of those losses are three-setters to the #2 and #3 players in the country (UGA's Jokic and Vanderbilt's Contreras). It was that third loss, to Santa Clara's Pothoff, that stands out.

If switching them out was based on a belief that Lord is better right now, then I'm not sure I totally agree with that. Lord had her own struggles at Court 2, losing to UT's Anna Turati and Georgia's Marta Gonzalez before crushing #9 Christina Rosca of Vanderbilt and then barely hanging on against Santa Clara (7-6, 7-6 in a match that had no business being that close). But perhaps they played a challenge match and Lord won, and if so, then it is what it is.

If taking Gordon out of the singles lineup against Oregon and then reentering the ladder at #2 was because she had a nagging injury or something that Lele wanted to give a little rest (and also maybe lighten the mental load of playing at the top of the lineup, too), then it makes a lot of sense and has played out nicely. Heck, even if it was just meant as motivation, then my goodness, Gordon has responded by playing her two sharpest matches of the year, so if that was the goal, then it seems to have worked. Ultimately, it seems like the switch was more because Gordon could benefit from being bumped down, as opposed to Lord making the clear-cut case in matches that she deserved to be bumped up.

I'm still confident in my belief that Gordon at her best is at least a bit better than Lord at hers, so if Gordon keeps playing lights out, then I'd expect them to trade spots again. But whereas before I felt like we had a pretty good chance to win at #1 and #2 in just about every match, if this lineup sticks, then I feel like our chances to win at #1 go down a bit but our chances to win at #2 go up by more, so on balance, this certainly doesn't hurt us.

It won't matter much this coming weekend (we host Hawaii on Sunday and UC Davis on Monday), but UCLA and USC on the road will be the true test for whether this is the right lineup. Lord vs. UCLA's Jada Hart at #1 would be a rematch of the match on Court 2 in the Pac-12 championship match last year, which Lord won 6-1, 7-5 (and where she was the first match off court). (Lampl beat Hart 6-2, 6-4 in the regular season match last year, so we have a few players who should be able to beat Hart on Court 1, really.) UCLA's #2 is a freshman and so is USC's #1, so those would be new matchups anyway.

It could also be as simple as the fact that had both Gordon and Lord been healthy at the beginning of last season, Lord very likely would have been our #1 all year. But when she finally came back, Gordon was playing well and had it locked down, so there was no need to mess with things. So there's an element of "Lord has earned the chance to play #1" over the course of her career, too. No one has been more clutch in the NCAA tournament than Lord. If you figure you can get NCAA "Turbo Mode" Melissa Lord at #1 and you have arguably the best #2 in the country with Gordon, you might be better set up for tournament success.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-18-2019

Also, we haven't talked about her much this year, but Lampl has been outstanding. Hasn't lost in a dual match yet, and she knocked off UW's Stacey Fung and Cal's Olivia Hauger in her run to the Northwest Regional final.

It's hard to judge just how much of a leap she's taken because she plays at #3 and thus isn't facing the same sorts of challenges that Lord and Gordon face every week, but when she has been tested so far (Vanderbilt, Georgia, Texas), she's come up big. And aside from the two 3-set wins against Vanderbilt and Georgia, she's been winning comfortably, drubbing the people she should drub, which isn't always easy, so that's a nice sign.

Anyway, here's who the Pac-12 teams are playing this weekend:

* Stanford hosts Hawai'i on Sunday and UC Davis (who just got trounced by St. Mary's, so I think we're gonna be OK here)

* Cal hosts Hawai'i on Saturday

* Oregon goes to the LA schools, USC on Saturday and UCLA on Sunday.

* UW is idle; WSU hosts Boise State

* CU and Utah head to the desert to play Arizona and ASU; I'd expect ASU to win both and for Arizona to lose both, but we'll see.

So, we should see further stratification in the conference standings after this weekend, with USC and UCLA joining Stanford, Cal, and UW with 3-0 conference records, Oregon and Arizona going to 0-6 in Pac-12 play, and the other four schools in the middle. Then it'll all start shaking out the following weekend, when Stanford and Cal head to Los Angeles, and the weekend after that, when the Washington schools come to town.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - oldalum - 03-18-2019

(03-18-2019, 01:49 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Also, we haven't talked about her much this year, but Lampl has been outstanding. Hasn't lost in a dual match yet, and she knocked off UW's Stacey Fung and Cal's Olivia Hauger in her run to the Northwest Regional final.

It's hard to judge just how much of a leap she's taken because she plays at #3 and thus isn't facing the same sorts of challenges that Lord and Gordon face every week, but when she has been tested so far (Vanderbilt, Georgia, Texas), she's come up big. And aside from the two 3-set wins against Vanderbilt and Georgia, she's been winning comfortably, drubbing the people she should drub, which isn't always easy, so that's a nice sign.

IMO Lampl is the most improved player on the team from last year. She is noticeably better this year: she can now hit a screaming first serve, as fast as Lord's and I think faster than Gordon's; she can hit her ground strokes faster on both sides, but the biggest change is that she is more consistent. In the past she'd often take a set to find her range, and would squander a game or two with unforced errors, she's gotten a lot more consistent.

As for the Lord/Gordon 1/2 issue, what a good problem to have! Maybe it's as simple as this being Lord's senior year, or that Lele thought Lord would benefit from the challenge of playing at #1.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-19-2019

The new ITA rankings are out, and surprisingly, we went back up, to #4. We were helped just enough by Vanderbilt's loss to Texas A&M, so for now, we have an exceedingly slim lead over Vanderbilt (57.66 to 57.30), #6 South Carolina (55.10) and #7 Pepperdine (54.74). New singles and doubles rankings are out, too.

(FYI, this is the first week they're counting 6 wins, and next week's rankings will count 7 wins. So, don't be shocked if we drop below not just Vanderbilt, but also South Carolina and Pepperdine next week. The April 2 rankings will count 8 wins, but that's right after our trip to USC and UCLA, so we have a chance to rack up some big points that weekend and get back on track.)

Team rankings:

Here are the Top 50 teams that are in the conference or otherwise on our schedule:

2. Georgia (L)
4. Stanford
5. Vanderbilt (W)
9. UCLA (down 3)
10. Washington (down 1)
13. USC (up 4)
18. Texas (W, down 10, a harsh combination of the loss to Pepperdine and a light schedule so far, but I expect they'll pop right back up next week)
19. Cal (down 5)
21. LSU (W, down 2)
33. Washington State (W, up 3)
38. Utah (up 6)
49. Princeton (W, down 4)

Nice to see Utah continuing to climb! I hope we won't need to count a win in the 30s by the end of the year, and I'm not at all confident that Utah will remain that high, but it's still nice to see improvement across some of the Pac-12 programs that haven't been as successful to this point.

Note: The following analysis presumes we win out, just to get a sense of how the rankings would play out, not as a statement of belief or intent that the Woofing Gods should take seriously.

Assuming we take care of business against Hawaii and UC Davis, our best 7 wins for next week's rankings will be #5, #18, #21, #33, #49, and two that don't count for very much. Texas has a great opportunity in the next two weeks, however, hosting #34 Illinois today, #36 Kansas State on Friday, and #16 Kansas on Sunday, and then playing at #30 Oklahoma and #8 Oklahoma State next weekend. Even if they lose to Oklahoma State, that's still a big boost to their rankings that should have them back in the top 10. So, by the time they count 8 wins for the rankings that come out April 2, our best 8 wins could be #5 Vanderbilt, #8ish Texas, #9 UCLA (away), #13 USC (away), #21 LSU, #33 Wazzu, #49 Princeton, and just one unranked win. By the time they count 9 wins on the April 9 rankings, our best 9 wins could be #5 Vanderbilt, #8ish Texas, #9 UCLA (away), #10 UW, #13 USC (away), #21 LSU, #33 Wazzu (ITA Kickoff), #33 Wazzu (regular season), and #49 Princeton. Remember that it's just the top 9 wins that factor in to the pre-NCAA tournament rankings, and there are still road matches vs. Utah and Cal, as well as Pac-12 tournament matches, that could boost us further (such as second wins over UCLA, USC, Cal, and/or UW, depending on how seeding plays out). All in all, Stanford is still in good shape for a top 8 ranking at the end of the year, and that should still be true even if we take a loss on the road to UCLA or Cal. But the margin for error is tight.

Individual rankings:

Pac-12 players:

Singles:

17. Arbuthnott (steady)
18. Bolton (UCLA)
21. Hauger (Cal)
28. Gordon (down 6)
30. Rosenqvist (Cal)
47. Lord (down 6)
49. Ewing (USC)
51. Bayerlova (WSU)
57. Shin (down 2)
58. Lampl (down 7)
65. Sangwan (Oregon)
74. Bright (Cal)
75. Kulikov (USC)
81. Higuchi (down 18)
83. Choy (up 11)
87. John-Baptiste (ASU)
89. Fung (UW)
109. Hattingh (ASU)
120. Jankowski (ASU)
121. Nayar (CU)
123. Madurawe (down 17)
124. Willson (USC)

Doubles:

2. John-Baptiste/Hattingh (ASU)
11. Andrews/Broomfield (UCLA)
12. Lampl/Yee (down 1)
13. Mraz/Rosenqvist (Cal)
18. Arbuthnott/Gordon (up 2)
20. Kulikov/Valdes (USC)
22. Hart/Bolton (UCLA)
23. Bright/Dunk (Cal)
30. Yee/Madurawe (down 3)
41. Lord/Madurawe (down 5)
42. Fung/Zupancic (UW)
45. Altick/Miller (UCLA)
47. Wilson/Thomas (Arizona)
51. Hart/Broomfield (UCLA)
60. Mraz/Stloukalova (Cal)
65. Alicea/Hampton (ASU)
66. Mulville/Kahfiani (Oregon)

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-21-2019

As another point of reference, the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25 poll is out for this week, and Stanford remains #3, as actual humans look at results and agree that nothing has really changed at the top. It's still Georgia, UNC, Stanford, and Duke in that order.

The biggest climbers there are Pepperdine (#12 up to #5 after beating UCLA and Texas) and Texas A&M (#19 after being unranked), but rankings mostly stuck close to where they were last week. The biggest drop comes from LSU, down from #17 to #25.

In terms of our past and future opponents, Vanderbilt is tied for #6 in that poll, Texas is #8 (dropping two spots), UCLA is #10 (dropping two spots), Cal is #15 (up a spot), Washington is #17 (up 2 spots), USC is #22 (down 1), and LSU is #25 (down 8).

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - TheFarm07 - 03-24-2019

I saw we easily breezed past Hawaii 7-0, but what was of note was Lampl vaulting to the #1 spot over Gordon and Lord. I know those two have had struggles this season and ColoradoTree, you mentioned how much improvement she's made, what do you think of this lineup move?

Against an opponent we dominated, was this a chance to gradually move Lampl into a more permanent top spot or was it to let Gordon and Lord gain more confidence in the lower slots and then re-juggle the lineup to where we were before? How successful do you think Lampl will be against the top players on the top teams?

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - oldalum - 03-24-2019

Pure speculation, but Lampl's been lights out and maybe the coaches figure she earned it, at least against a lesser opponent. She's also a senior and it might have been a chance to give her that honor. Don't know how Lampl will do against the top players but maybe we'll find out; the coaches may have seen what she can do against Lord and Gordon. And I don't understand the rules restricting the extent to which coaches can move players up and down the lineup (I have a vague impression that they can only move one line?), but perhaps this gives Lele more flexibility later for how she orders the lineup.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-25-2019

Yeah, I didn't do a separate post for the Hawaii and UC Davis matches this week because it didn't feel like any of the results would be very newsworthy, but Lampl getting a shot at #1 singles is certainly newsworthy!

Like oldalum, I don't actually know what was behind it, and we may never know, unless someone asks Lele after the season in an unguarded moment. And I completely agree that the fact that (1) she's a senior, and (2) she's been playing absolutely lights out played a role in it.

But yes, under the ITA Rulebook for this season, the one-line rule is still in effect, and unless I'm missing something, putting Lampl at #1 was a violation of it. You can download it here (see pages 4-5):
https://www.itatennis.com/ITA/Coaches/Rules.aspx

The key excerpt:

Quote:In back-to-back dual matches (two consecutive dual matches), the team line-up (as played) may be changed as long as the line-up stays in order of ability. A player or doubles team may be moved one line-up position from the previous match. The movement rule does not apply from the last match of the fall season to the first match of the spring season.

Because the lineup against Arizona was Lord-Gordon-Lampl, it was therefore an illegal move to, absent injury, play a lineup that started (1) Lampl, (2) Gordon, (3) Lord. Lineups you could have legally played:

* (1) Lord, (2) Lampl, (3) Gordon
* (1) Gordon, (2) Lampl, (3) Arbuthnott (Lord taking the day off)
* (1) Lord, (2) Lampl, (3) Arbuthnott (Gordon taking the day off)
* (1) Lampl, (2) Arbuthnott, (3) Shin (both Lord and Gordon taking the day off)

But having played at #3 the last match, Lampl couldn't jump up to #1. If you wanted to legally get to the lineup vs. Hawaii, it would have to be a three-match process--i.e., playing her at #2 (and Gordon at #3) against Hawaii, playing Lampl at #1 (Lord at 2 and Gordon at 3) against UC Davis, and playing Lampl at 1, Gordon at 2, and Lord at 3 against UCLA this weekend. Now, if the goal was to give Lampl a shot at #1 but then retreat to our normal lineup, then it almost had to take place today. Why?

1. We now have time to gradually get back to our most common lineup this year (Gordon at 1, Lord at 2, Lampl at 3) before the UCLA match.
2. Third-party coaches can file lineup protests within 72 hours of the start of the match. Your first offense gets you a warning letter. The second offense gets you a 7-0 default loss in the next match where there's a violation. (Those violation letters carry over year after year, too. So if you're UCLA's coach, for example, why *not* send a protest letter?)
3. I'd expect to see a lineup today that has Gordon at 1, Lampl at 2, and Lord at 3. That would allow Lampl and Lord to switch spots again before UCLA. (That's assuming the goal is to have Gordon play 1, that is. But that's the only way the Hawaii lineup makes sense to me. If the goal was to give Lampl a shot but get Lord back at #1, then I would have expected Lord to stay at #2, and bump Gordon down to #3.)

If this was the plan, then why not start the process against Arizona? Against ASU, it was Lord-Gordon-Lampl. Against Arizona, it could have been Lord-Lampl-Gordon. Then, against Hawaii, it could have been Lampl-Lord-Gordon. Against UC Davis, it could have been Lampl-Gordon-Lord, and then against UCLA, it could have been Gordon-Lampl-Lord. (Or, if the goal was getting Lord back to #1, against UC Davis it could have been Lord-Lampl-Gordon, and then against UCLA, Lord-Gordon-Lampl.) This could also have been accomplished much more easily if Lord hadn't been moved to #1 in the first place. If ASU had been Gordon-Lord-Lampl, Arizona could have been Gordon-Lampl-Lord, Hawaii could have legally been Lampl-Gordon-Lord, UC Davis could be Gordon-Lampl-Lord, and you're back at Gordon-Lord-Lampl for UCLA.

What all that tells me is that this might actually represent some real uncertainty on Lele's part as to who truly should be playing #1. I'm not sure there was doubt before the Santa Clara match, when Gordon lost to Pothoff, but there might be legitimate doubt now. The problem is that while the rulebook mandates you set your lineup in order of ability, the rulebook assumes you've been doing that, and thus, you shouldn't need to jump your #3 up to #1 absent injury.

Challenge matches used to not be valid to move a player down in the lineup once you started the dual season, but that language isn't expressly in the rulebook anymore. Perhaps they played some challenge matches, Lampl came out on top, and this is how things shake out. But I have trouble squaring that with the language of the one-line rule. Maybe it was as simple as Lele explaining that they wanted to give Lampl a shot at #1 because she'd been playing so well, they're legitimately torn about who should play #1, and because Lele doesn't have a track record of trying to stack lineups, other coaches sort of shrugged and declined to make a protest. The fact that Lampl beat the tar out of Hawaii's one ranked player on Court 1 helps the case that this isn't stacking or trying to sandbag an opponent. I would never suspect Lele of something like that anyway. But it's still a technical violation of the one-line rule, and it doesn't matter if your heart was in the right place.

The statute of limitations is basically 72 hours from the start of the match, so unless a protest is filed by then, then this no longer matters. And perhaps Lele is relying on the norm among college coaches that protests are only filed where (1) the lineup change effectively determined the dual match result, or at least could have affected it, or (2) like Arkansas last year, the sheer number of wins in a day that involved violations of the rule, meant that a team might find itself on the outside looking in for NCAA selection. Here, neither concern is at play. No one thinks Lele was cheating. Coaches might also like to rely on that norm themselves to get a senior a chance to play #1 and not be accused of violating a rule. But if a coach wanted to call her out to use up Lele's one free violation, then I'd be hard pressed to argue with that.

(03-24-2019, 11:48 PM)oldalum Wrote: perhaps this gives Lele more flexibility later for how she orders the lineup.

It doesn't give Lele any more flexibility--she's stuck with the strictures of the one-line rule--though if she wanted to try out Lampl at 2 and Lord at 3 vs. UCLA, then she could do that now.

The UC Davis match is at 4:00pm today, so the news out of that match won't be the result--we'll win handily--but the lineup we use, and what it says about our plans for UCLA next weekend.

I just saw Stanford announce that today's match will be postponed due to rain, potentially with a makeup date this week. If it gets rained out with no makeup date, then the lineup against UCLA will be one of the following three options:

* Lampl-Gordon-Lord (the new status quo)
* Gordon-Lampl-Lord
* Lampl-Lord-Gordon

If Lele wants to get Lampl back down to #3 for UCLA, then she needs to get the UC Davis match played. Of course, the sanction for violating the one-line rule is to be ordered to go back to your previous lineup (which would be Lord-Gordon-Lampl), so if Lele's desperate to get there, she might self-report or something, or try and get a local school to play a match on short notice. But rolling with Gordon-Lampl-Lord isn't that big of a deal, really, and I'm not sure our chances of beating UCLA are materially different if the matches at #2 and #3 are Lampl-Bolton and Lord-Altick vs. Lord-Bolton and Lampl-Altick (assuming UCLA sticks with their most recent lineup).

But there is a cost to doing things like this, which is that you might not have your ideal lineup for the biggest conference match of the season.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - oldalum - 03-25-2019

We have a very friendly relationship with Hawaii (we visit them every Thanksgiving and play an exhibition/friendly match against them) so I suspect Hawaii gave the OK to our lineup before the match. Lele knew yesterday that today's match might be rained out, so I suspect she wanted yesterday's lineup even with that possibility (and may have repeated the same lineup today if the match had been played). Which means our lineup against Hawaii is what she wants to use vs. UCLA, or that lineup with permissible 1-line changes. Maybe she likes how Lampl matches up vs. Hart, who I think is a powerful baseliner. Maybe she's messing with the UCLA coach's preparation for Friday. Maybe both, or none. I guess we'll find out soon.

In other news, Vandy helped us yesterday by eking out a 4-3 win vs. Florida at home. This after losing to South Carolina.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-25-2019

(03-25-2019, 10:49 AM)oldalum Wrote: We have a very friendly relationship with Hawaii (we visit them every Thanksgiving and play an exhibition/friendly match against them) so I suspect Hawaii gave the OK to our lineup before the match. Lele knew yesterday that today's match might be rained out, so I suspect she wanted yesterday's lineup even with that possibility (and may have repeated the same lineup today if the match had been played). Which means our lineup against Hawaii is what she wants to use vs. UCLA, or that lineup with permissible 1-line changes. Maybe she likes how Lampl matches up vs. Hart, who I think is a powerful baseliner. Maybe she's messing with the UCLA coach's preparation for Friday. Maybe both, or none. I guess we'll find out soon.

In other news, Vandy helped us yesterday by eking out a 4-3 win vs. Florida at home. This after losing to South Carolina.

Oh, for sure, I don't think Hawaii would protest our lineup, but third-party challenges are allowed (Kansas State did that with the Arkansas shenanigans last year). That's more what I'm worried about, and though most schools may not be looking at it that closely, I'd be shocked if UCLA or USC didn't look up our lineup before the 72 hours lapses, just as part of normal prep for this weekend's matches. It might generate some bad blood for UCLA to file a protest, but UCLA has a conference title in its grasp, and if they feel like they have a better chance to win the dual match against Stanford playing Lord-Gordon-Lampl than Lampl-Gordon-Lord, then why not make the protest? (I have no idea as to the relationship between Lele and longtime UCLA head coach Stella Sampras-Webster, but it would certainly take a hit if UCLA protested. USC's coach is in her second year there, so Alison Swain's willingness to say something is an unknown.) The point of the rule is to avoid cheating and stacking, so generally if there's no whiff of that despite the technical violation of the one-line rule, it sure seems like most coaches ignore it and shrug it off.

But let's say there's no protest, and let's say you're right that Lele wants this lineup for UCLA. I have to say, I don't hate it. Lampl played Hart twice last year, once at the Freeman Memorial Championships (Lampl won 6-7, 7-5, 7-5), and once in the regular-season dual match (Lampl won 6-2, 6-4). Gordon at #2 against Bolton could be a really fun match, and I assume Lord would take care of business at #3 against Altick (or Broomfield--both she and Altick have played a lot of #3 for UCLA this year). Like you said, we'll see soon enough!

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - ColoradoTree - 03-25-2019

Yeah, that Vanderbilt win over Florida was big. Texas's 4-3 win over #18 Kansas (after also getting ranked wins over KSU and Illlinois) was similarly big, and should get them comfortably back in the top 10 in tomorrow's rankings. LSU picked up a couple of good wins, so hopefully they don't slide too much more. Princeton beat #42 Rice, which is useful for our rankings for the time being, too.

Interesting match between San Diego and Gonzaga, with San Diego winning 4-3, despite Solymar Colling's close loss to #8 Sophie Whittle on Court 1 (Whittle won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.) It won't help Gordon's ranking any, but it puts that NCTC loss to Colling in some perspective, where Gordon may not have been coming in expecting that level of competition and wasn't able to adjust on the fly.

Around the conference:

* Both Arizona schools beat newly-ranked Utah. ASU's win isn't surprising, but Arizona's is, and suggests that Arizona's 4-3 loss to UCLA isn't a total fluke and Arizona is legitimately improving. ASU also beat Colorado, but Colorado beat Arizona 4-3.

* Both UCLA and USC beat Oregon (UCLA by 6-1 and USC by 5-2). Oregon's best player, Shweta Sangwan, didn't play, so Oregon (who only has 7 players on the roster) had to forfeit #3 doubles and #6 singles, making an already-hard road even harder. Sangwan had missed time with injury earlier this year, but came back for a few matches (including the one against Stanford), but missed the UCLA and USC matches. Oddly, she's not currently listed on the team roster, but I don't see any mention anywhere.

* UW was idle, while WSU beat Boise State comfortably.

* Cal beat Hawaii 4-3, an interesting comparison to Stanford's thorough demolishing of Hawaii.

Current Conference Standings:

T1. #10 Washington (13-1, 3-0)
T1. #4 Stanford (11-1, 3-0)
T1. #13 USC (12-2, 3-0)
T1. #9 UCLA (10-3, 3-0)
T1. #19 Cal (9-3, 3-0)
6. Colorado (9-8, 2-2)
7. Arizona State (7-8, 2-4)
8. #33 Washington State (16-4, 1-2)
9. #38 Utah (10-5, 1-3)
10. Arizona (9-8, 1-5)
11. Oregon (6-11, 0-6)

I don't mind at all that the conference is that top-heavy. A lot of wins over teams in the 30s and 40s (like other power conferences have) is good for team rankings now, but it doesn't do much for you when NCAA seeds are on the line.

RE: Women's Tennis: Sun Devils and Wildcats - BostonCard - 03-25-2019

(03-25-2019, 12:35 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: (I have no idea as to the relationship between Lele and longtime UCLA head coach Stella Sampras-Webster, but it would certainly take a hit if UCLA protested. USC's coach is in her second year there, so Alison Swain's willingness to say something is an unknown.)

I looked; that Sampras is her brother.

BC