Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season

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Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-12-2021

After snapping Stanford's worst losing streak in 40 years by beating USC 6-1 in Los Angeles, Stanford returns home to face perennial non-conference opponent Hawaii (Tuesday, 4/13 at 2:00pm) before finishing the Pac-12 slate against Cal (Friday, 4/16 at 1:30pm).

That's right, I said 40 years. The last time Stanford women's tennis lost 3 in a row was 1981, the last year of AIAW play. Another way of saying it is that this was the first time since the NCAA started sanctioning women's tennis that Stanford lost three in a row. A commentary on how dominant this team has been over the years. (FWIW, Stanford won the inaugural NCAA women's title the next year in 1982, so perhaps this bodes well for next season.)

State of Pac-12 Play

Stanford is 7-2 in conference play and 11-3 overall. The win over USC was technically an upset by the rankings, but that's a feature of Stanford's diminished schedule and upset loss to Oregon. If Stanford hosts in the postseason, it will be because it's a weird year and the NCAA awards us hosting duties as part of a bid package--it won't be because we've earned it. But there's still a lot to play for in terms of postseason positioning, and just old-fashioned improvement. Here's where things stand in the conference:

1. UCLA (15-3, 9-0)
T2. Stanford (11-3, 7-2)
T2. Cal (14-5, 7-2)
T4. ASU (12-7, 5-4)
T4. USC (11-8, 5-4)
6. Oregon (12-7, 5-5)
T7. Washington (12-6, 4-5)
T7. Wazzu (12-11, 4-5)
T9. Arizona (13-10, 2-7)
T9. Colorado (8-11, 2-7)
11. Utah (7-12, 0-9)

The Pac-12 tournament is next week in San Diego, and the only seeds that are set are UCLA as the #1 and Utah as the #11--everyone else could move up or down. Here's what's left for conference play, all on Friday:

* ASU at Arizona (Noon)
* Utah at Colorado (12:30pm)
* Cal at Stanford (1:30pm)
* USC at UCLA (1:30pm)
* WSU at UW (1:30pm)

Oregon is idle. Thus, the Stanford-Cal match will decide which team is the #2 seed and which is the #3 seed. We could really use this one. If Stanford wins and the other matches shake out as I would expect, here's what the tournament seeding would be:

1. UCLA (10-0)
2. Stanford (8-2)
3. Cal (7-3)
4. ASU (6-4)
5. Oregon (5-5)*
6. USC (5-5)*
7. UW (5-5)*
8. WSU (4-6)
9. CU (3-7)
10. Arizona (2-8)
11. Utah (0-10)

* Not positive how the Pac-12 would break this three-way tie of 5-5 teams, since they've gone 1-1 against the other two. But if it's the same tiebreaker used in basketball, I think this would mean they'd look at everyone's record against the #1 team, then the #2 team, then the #3 team, etc. Oregon's win over Stanford looms gives them the advantage.

That would mean the following early-round tournament matchups:

First round:
(6) USC vs. (11) Utah
(7) UW vs. (10) Arizona
(8) WSU vs. (9) Colorado

Second round:
(1) UCLA vs. WSU/CU
(4) ASU vs. (5) Oregon

(2) Stanford vs. UW/Arizona
(3) Cal vs. USC/Utah

Roster shakeup

Angelica Blake finally displaced Emily Arbuthnott against USC, and while I think that is the correct decision, it might not make us a better team, as having Arbuthnott at 2 meant we were likely to take a loss there but likelier to get wins on lines 3 and 4. We'll see what things look like against Hawaii and then against Cal, and whether Geller has also leapfrogged Arbuthnott, or whether this was just a one-match tweak and Arbuthnott will be back at 2.

But with Geller and Shin both out (not sure why Shin was out, but Geller was presumably still out from the cramping that made her retire against Pepperdine), that meant Choy returned to the #4 spot which she had most of the year before we were full strength, Higuchi played at #5, and star recruit India Houghton rejoined the lineup at #6. Curious why Madurawe didn't figure into the plans, but perhaps Lele wanted to give Houghton a match.

How to watch: http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/?DB_OEM_ID=30600

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-12-2021

A note on rankings

For the first time that I can remember, and due to the scheduling weirdness covid has created, the ITA is publishing both computer rankings and a coaches' poll in order to give the NCAA more information on how to seed teams for the tournament. (Usually, they only do the computer rankings this late in the season, and the NCAA almost always just defaults to using those for seeding purpose.) For a lot of teams, those numbers closely track: USC was #34 in the computers and #32 in the coaches' poll. But Stanford saw a pretty large split: #38 in the computer rankings and #26 in the coaches' poll.

A look at our opponents this week

Hawaii is 5-5, and we have three opponents in common: USC, UCSB, and UC Davis. We beat both Santa Barbara and Davis by 7-0 scores, while Hawaii lost 5-2 to UCSB and 4-2 to Davis. Hawaii's best player is Petra Melounova, but she hasn't played in the last handful of matches. Hawaii lost 6-1 to USC back in February, which is a better comparison, and back then, Eryn Cayetano beat Melounova 7-6, 7-5 at #1, USC rolled at #2 and #4, won competitive matches at #3 and #6, and it was Texas transfer Bojana Markovic who beat USC's Clare McKee in a third-set match tiebreaker for Hawaii's only point. (McKee is the player who Houghton beat, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.)

Bottom line: Stanford is a good deal better than Hawaii. There might be some closer matches, but we should get to 4 points pretty quickly while those play out.

Cal is #27 in the computer rankings and #22 in the coaches' poll, and it suffered an ignominious loss of its own, a 4-3 match to CU in Boulder. They pulled off a 4-3 upset over a shorthanded UCLA in non-conference play, but just lost 7-0 to UCLA in what feels like a more accurate reflection of those two teams, with UCLA handily winning each singles match except for Court 5, where UCLA's Goulak beat Cal freshman Hannah Viller Moeller in three sets. (The first of the three matchups this season was a 4-0 UCLA win.)

Cal has made a habit of close matches, beating UW, WSU, Oregon, and USC by 4-3 scores (we beat UW, WSU, and USC by 6-1 scores but lost 4-3 to Oregon). They lost 6-1 to Pepperdine even without Lahey in the lineup, and later lost 4-3 to Pepperdine with Lahey but without Failla in the lineup, while we had a full-strength Pepperdine team on the ropes before dropping a heartbreaker. Let's look at those five matches to see if patterns emerge:

Washington: Stanford won a tight doubles point and clinched the match quickly behind routine wins from Higuchi, Blake, and Geller. Choy made it 5 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Weil on #5, Arbuthnott dropped a third-set match tiebreaker to Fortin for UW's only point, and Gordon capped it with a third-set match tiebreaker win of her own for the final score. Cal won doubles and got routine singles wins from Bright at 4 and Brown at 6, while UW had a routine win (Weil over Richardson) at 5 and competitive wins at 1 (Wong won 7-5, 6-2 over Giavara) and 3 (Viller Moeller lost 6-3, 6-3, playing up a line due to Ivanov's absence). It came down to #2, where Rosenqvist beat Fortin 7-5, 6-3 for the match.

WSU: We won a competitive doubles point and then had routine straight-set wins on five courts, with Higuchi's 7-6, 6-2 win over Ates being the closest win, while Shin lost 6-7, 4-6 on Court 5 to Ly-Nguyen. Cal won doubles, got solid wins on 3 and 5 (Anna Bright beat Ly-Nguyen handily), Ates beat Cal's Cami Brown 6-1, 7-5 to make it 3-1 Cal, and then Hannah Viller Moeller clinched Cal's win at #4 before Rosenqvist fell to Sato at 2 and Giavara lost a third-set match tiebreaker to Bayerlova at #1 for the final margin.

Oregon: Stanford lost doubles, which would prove pivotal after Stanford quickly went up 3-1 behind routine wins from Arbuthnott, Blake, and Higuchi. Gordon lost 7-5, 6-3 to Tjen, then Madurawe lost 7-5, 7-6 to Eshet at 5, and a depleted Choy lost 6-4 in the third set to Martinez Moral for the final score. Meanwhile, Cal took the doubles point, Tjen crushed Giavara at 1 (6-1, 6-1), Cal got a couple solid wins from Rosenqvist at 2 and Bright at 5, Oregon beat Bui at 3 and Brown at 6, and the clincher came from Viller Moeller at 4, with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Martinez Moral the clincher.

USC: Stanford won a tight doubles point before quickly getting to 3-0 behind quick wins from Choy at 4 and Higuchi at 5. The rest of the matches were tight, with Blake clinching with a 3-set win, Gordon dropping a third-set match tiebreaker to Ewing, Arbuthnott winning a match tiebreaker of her own, and Houghton winning her third set 7-5 for the 6-1 final margin. Cal won a very tight doubles point before USC's Ewing crushed Giavara 6-2, 6-0. Ivanov was losing at 3 before USC's Cheong got hurt, letting Ivanov take the second set before Cheong retired, making it 2-1 Cal. Bright won handily at 6, and Viller Moeller again got the clincher at 5 with a routine win. They played it out, with Rosenqvist falling in the third set at 2 and USC's Willson beating Bui in a third set match tiebreaker on 4 for the final margin.

Pepperdine: Stanford won a tight doubles point and got routine wins from Gordon over Failla at 1 and Higuchi at 6. Blake lost quickly to Pachkaleva, Arbuthnott the same to Lahey, Geller retired down 7-5, 4-2, and Choy lost to Zaar 7-6 in the third. We were so, so close. In the first matchup, Pepperdine won doubles over Cal and got a routine win at 2 (Pachkaleva over Rosenqvist) while Cal answered at 1 (Giavara beat Failla 6-4, 6-1). The rest of the matches were competitive (Courts 3-5 went to third sets), but Pepperdine won them all. Lahey missed that match, and Failla missed the second one, while Cal was full strength for both. Pepperdine again won doubles, and all the singles matches were competitive. Pepperdine got to 4-0 behind wins at 2 (Pachkaleva again over Rosenqvist), 3 (Fukuda over Ivanov, 6-1 in the third), and 4 (Zaar in straight sets over Bui). Giavara beat Lahey at 1 in three, Bright won at 6 in three, and Viller Moeller got it to 4-3 with a slow-mover at 5, 6-4, 7-6.

I think we're a little better than Cal, I do. If all players were healthy and played to their top level, we'd win. But that's not how tennis works, is it? So let's go line by line in singles, with the understanding that doubles is up for grabs, and assuming everyone is healthy.

1. I give Gordon a slight edge over Giavara, though Giavara did win in three sets in Fall Nationals in 2019. A win either way shouldn't be a surprise.
2. Rosenqvist has an edge over Blake, but not a big one. Should be close.
3. Ivanov vs. Arbuthnott: I'm gonna say a toss-up? (If the lineup switch hadn't happened, I'd have put Blake over Ivanov.)
4. Geller has an edge over Bui.
5. I like this Choy-Viller Moeller matchup. It'll be close.
6. Bright has an edge over Higuchi.

All I know is it'll be close, and it'll decide second place in the conference. I'll take Stanford 5-2.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-14-2021

So, Senior Day against Hawaii went about as expected, and we used the opportunity of playing a somewhat lesser opponent at this point in the season to rest some normal starters and let others get some matches in.

Gordon, Blake, and Geller all didn't play, though only Geller might be injury-based. That meant we saw a tweaked doubles lineup (Arbuthnott/Madurawe, Choy/Higuchi, and Houghton/Shin) take the doubles point before we saw this singles lineup race to a quick win:

1. Arbuthnott
2. Choy
3. Madurawe
4. Shin
5. Higuchi
6. Houghton

We didn't play it out, suggesting that the goal here was to honor the seniors and get off court before someone got injured in a match that ultimately doesn't matter much. Choy was off court first with a 6-3, 6-1 win, followed by Madurawe's 6-2, 6-1 win. (That's the first singles match inside the stadium for each of them, I believe.) Fittingly, it was Emma Higuchi who got the clincher, 7-5, 6-0 on Court 5. (Weird scoreline, but with Senior Day excitement, it's easy to imagine having a tough time getting into it, but then dominating once you do. I'll never complain about a slow start when the player turns it on later and takes control of a match.)

There's not a ton to draw from this match, but here are my takeaways:

1. The pecking order is interesting. Since you can't adjust a player's singles line more than one line per match (injuries/rest excepted), Lele basically thinks that this is the pecking order among the players who'd be on the lower courts. Choy, then Madurawe, then Shin, then Higuchi, then Houghton. That suggests that if Gordon/Blake/Geller are healthy, we'd see Choy at 5 and Madurawe at 6 against Cal. Considering the one-line rule, you could swap Shin over Madurawe at 6, or you could swap Higuchi over Shin and see Higuchi at 6 if Geller is still out or if Lele would prefer to rest some hypothetical soreness or tweak Madurawe might have. But if everyone's healthy? We just likely saw the last Taube match of Higuchi's career.

2. Of the matches that didn't finish, we were in command of two of them: Arbuthnott leading 6-1, 4-3 on Court 1, and Houghton leading 6-4, 3-2 on Court 6. Not worried about those. The concerning one? You guessed it! Janice Shin, who lost the first set 6-1 to Lea Romain, who has played in just half of Hawaii's matches with a 3-2 record, and who wasn't even in the top 6 to start the year, joining the lineup due to injuries. The talent differential is massive here. And Shin dropped a set. And not just a set--she ate a breadstick. Now, to be fair, Shin did come back and take the second set, but this has been the confusing saga of Janice Shin the last couple of years. As a freshman, she wasn't just solidly in the lineup at #5 singles, we depended on her for quick wins. In the Round of 16 against #1 UNC, she got the clincher over a ranked opponent in routine fashion, 6-3, 6-2. In the semis against Duke, she was second off court with a 6-1, 6-1 over another ranked opponent. And in the final against Vanderbilt, after Gordon's loss made it 2-2, she put us one match away with a 6-3, 6-3 win, with both Arbuthnott and Lord left on court. As a sophomore, in the last NCAA final contested, she clinched the national title! She was a dominant #5 against other elite teams. And then--she just didn't progress. More than that, she has regressed. Anyway. She deserves our eternal thanks for the dominance in her freshman and sophomore years, as they helped us get two titles. But it's hard to see a place in the singles lineup for her next year.

3. Nicole Mossmer is a scholarship player, a former blue chip recruit who was a Top 20 recruit in the country. And she is clearly figures absolutely nowhere in Lele's lineup. You'd think that some of the Houghton appearances this year could have been a match for Mossmer, but nothing. Could be that she's injured--we don't exactly have dedicated beat reporters that could find out that stuff. Or maybe she is redshirting, especially in this weird covid year. But the reason I mention it is that in the team picture for Senior Day, every player on the roster is there, even the ones who didn't play--except Mossmer. Curious to see what the fall season brings, once tournaments begin again.

New Rankings

The new ITA rankings are out, and Stanford is #29 in the computer rankings, a rise of 9 spots. (That's on the strength of the win over USC.). In the coaches' poll, Stanford stayed at #26. Around the Pac-12, UCLA is #8/#6, Cal is #25/#22, ASU is #33/#31, USC is #36/#32, Oregon is #47/#40, and Washington is #50/#45. Given the shortened season for Pac-12 teams, it makes sense that the computers aren't quite as impressed as the coaches are.

We also have new singles and doubles rankings for the first time in a while, and while the NCAA has asked for both the ITA computer and coaches' rankings for teams, they appear to be set on using the computer rankings for the singles and doubles championships, which should mean underrepresenting Pac-12 student-athletes. Only Gordon is ranked in singles at #41, and no Stanford doubles teams are ranked, suggesting that only Gordon will make an appearance in the NCAA singles championships at the end of the year--and that's only if she holds her spot, gets a couple good wins at Pac-12s, and doesn't take a bad loss.

I hope that the NCAA provides for a number of wild cards and uses those to restore a bit of geographic balance to NCAAs. The SEC and ACC are elite tennis conferences, don't get me wrong, but they're just overrepresented in the rankings right now, plain and simple.

A Periodic Reminder

Stanford women's tennis is the 2-time defending national champion.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2021

OK folks, just a few hours until we play Cal. Can't say for sure how the lineup will look because Geller has been out, but assuming everyone is healthy and ready to go, here's what I think we can expect from doubles and singles today:

#29/#26 Stanford vs. #25/#22 Cal

Doubles:

1. Gordon/Madurawe vs. Haley Giavara/Valentina Ivanov
2. Arbuthnott/Blake vs. Anna Bright/Hanna Viller Moeller
3. Choy/Higuchi vs. Jada Bui/Erin Richardson

Singles:

1. Gordon vs. Giavara
2. Blake vs. Julia Rosenqvist
3. Arbuthnott vs. Ivanov
4. Geller vs. Bui
5. Choy vs. Viller Moeller
6. Madurawe vs. Bright

Prediction: I think doubles is extremely tight, but the home court helps us win it narrowly. The likely range of this match feels like between a 4-3 Cal win and a 6-1 Stanford win, so I'll say 5-2 Stanford if they play it out (like 4-1 if they don't). Not an easy match out there for either side, but maybe Geller can put the pressure on with a quicker win than most of the others.

If Geller is still out, that probably means Choy-Bui, Madurawe-Viller Moeller, and Higuchi-Bright, in which case I'd be a lot more nervous, but I'd go with 4-3 Stanford in that event.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2021

Stanford 0, Cal 0

1. Gordon/Madurawe trail 3-5 (Cal serving for that match after we led 3-1)
2. Arbuthnott/Blake lead 5-3 (broke Cal on Bright's serve for 3-2 and Blake consolidated, we broke again, and Arbuthnott was just broken trying to serve it out)
3. Choy/Higuchi tied 4-4 (were up a break at 2-1, but Higuchi was broken to get it back on serve, Cal held, Choy was just broken on deciding point, and we just broke to get it back on serve before holding)

On Madurawe's first service game, we were down 30-40, but she forced a couple of service winners to take the game. We were down on Gordon's first service game, too (0-40, I think), but she turned it around and got it done. Just now on Gordon's serve, we were down 15-30, took a 40-30 lead, and then lost two in a row to drop that break. Had a break point on Ivanov's serve but couldn't get it, then sprayed a volley wide on deciding point and Cal held. That was pretty big, as Cal is now one game away from that match after breaking Madurawe just now.

On Choy's most recent service game, we were down 15-40, and she got it to a deciding point, but Higuchi dumped a volley into the net to put us down a break. We got the break right back, though, and Higuchi fought off a couple break points on her serve to hold to 4-4.

Anyway, doubles is tight as expected. So many deciding points. We just need a few more of them to go our way.

A big missed opportunity on Court 3, as we go down 4-5 after Cal holds on a deciding point. That feels pivotal, as Gordon/Madurawe just lost 6-3 on Court 1.

Arbuthnott/Blake just won theirs 6-3 as well, so we need a great service game out of Sara Choy here (and then a great return game and a great service game out of Emma Higuchi, but one game at a time).

Currently 30-30....

Now serving up 40-30. Come on!

Higuchi dumps it into the net and it's a deciding point. If Cal wins it, that's the doubles point....

Choy misdirects Cal on a forehand and it's 5-5! Whew!

Cal serving at 5-5:
0-15
0-30
0-40! Come on!

And we break at love! That was a close call that we called out, but Higuchi will serve for the doubles point, up 6-5.

And we hold for the doubles point! Stanford 1, Cal 0 heading into singles:

1. Gordon vs. Giavara
2. Blake vs. Ivanov
3. Arbuthnott vs. Rosenqvist
4. Geller vs. Bui
5. Choy vs. Viller Moeller
6. Higuchi vs. Bright

Higuchi’s presence is a two-line jump, which means either Shin or Madurawe has been made unavailable due to injury, and Lele leapfrogged Emma over the other. (Needn’t be something more than slight hamstring tightness, which may or may not be phantom.)

Let’s do this!

I give Stanford a clear advantage at 4 and very slight advantages at 1 and 2. Cal has a clear advantage at 6, a slight one at 3, and it’s a toss-up at 5. But that’s why they play the matches.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - cardcrimson - 04-16-2021

Good grief. I read the headline and figured Covid hit the Rainbows and the Weenies. How conditioned have I become?

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2021

Stanford 1, Cal 0

1. Gordon leads 4-1
2. Blake leads 5-0
3. Arbuthnott trails 0-3
4. Geller leads 2-1
5. Choy trails 1-2
6. Higuchi trails 1-2

Stanford 1, Cal 0

1. Gordon leads 6-1, 1-0
2. Blake leads 6-0, 0-1
3. Arbuthnott trails 1-6
4. Geller leads 4-3
5. Choy leads 5-2 (I think—the score keeps going up and down)
6. Higuchi trails 3-4 (she won two in a row to get it back on serve)

Stanford 1, Cal 0

1. Gordon leads 6-1, 3-1
2. Blake leads 6-0, 3-1
3. Arbuthnott trails 1-6, 1-2 (down a break)
4. Geller trails 4-5 (down a break)
5. Choy leads 6-2
6. Higuchi trails 3-5

Higuchi just had a couple points to level her set at 4-4 but she couldn't finish, and now Bright will serve for that first set. Geller was up 4-3 but lost two in a row and now Bui will serve for the set.

But man alive, you can't ask for much more out of the top two spots in the lineup.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2021

Stanford 3, Cal 0

1. Gordon won 6-1, 6-1 (Giavara just lacking any kind of spark, looks defeated; Gordon served it out and Giavara pushed it juuuuust wide on match point)
2. Blake won 6-0, 6-2
3. Arbuthnott trails 1-6, 2-5
4. Geller trails 4-6, 1-3
5. Choy leads 6-2, 2-2
6. Higuchi tied 6-6

* Gordon. Wow. What can you say? Just absolutely dominated against a highly ranked opponent.
* Blake, too! She won just seconds after Gordon did, but my goodness,
* Higuchi broke Bright right back (say that ten times fast) to get things back on serve and then held for 5-5. Bright then held and Higuchi was up 40-15 to force a tiebreaker, Bright got it to deciding point, but then dumped a service return into the net and it'll be a tiebreaker for the first set! She's down 4-1 early, though, so she'll need to dig deep to take this one.
* Not thrilled by Geller's performance so far, but it's her first match back in a couple weeks. Let's see if she can turn it around in the second.
* Choy's match is like a college basketball game. Lots of runs of a few points in a row before the other player reels off a few of her own. And all breaks of serve this second set so far.

Stanford 3, Cal 1

3. Arbuthnott loses 1-6, 2-6
4. Geller trails 4-6, 2-5
5. Choy leads 6-2, 4-3
6. Higuchi trails 6-7, 0-0

* Goodness, Emily. Rosenqvist is the better player, but I expected a little bit more of a fight from Emily on what could be her last match at Taube.
* Geller mostly looks lost, and then she'll find something for a game before losing it again.
* Choy had another couple of game points on her serve and couldn't do it. Sigh. Looks like we might need this match, so I'd like to see her hold serve at some point this set! Of course, then she came right back and broke again, so maybe this one is destined for a tiebreaker. But then she held!
* Higuchi lost her tiebreaker 7-5. Trainer out working on Emma now....
* Just need one more!

3-2 as Geller loses her match 6-4, 6-2 in a fairly disappointing outing.

But it comes just as Choy breaks to go up 5-3. She's serving for the match now! Come on, Sara!

6-3, 6-3, and Choy clinches the win over Cal!

They’re playing it out on Court 6, with Higuchi down a break, 1-2, in the second.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2021

Emma breaks and then holds for a 3-2 lead!

Breaks again for 4-2, and held on deciding point for 5-2!

A match tiebreaker will decide Higuchi-Bright as Emma turns on the gas and takes the second set 6-2!

Good thing they play to ten, as Bright races out to a 7-1 lead before Higuchi gets it to 7-5.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-16-2021

Got it to 7-6 before Bright got it to 9-6, and she ended up winning 10-7. So it’s a 4-3 win in the end.

Takeaways:

* Gordon and Blake just dominating bodes so well for the postseason. I’m pretty pumped about that.
* I figured Arbuthnott would lose, but I didn’t think she’d get crushed like that. Oof. That’s not the way you want your Taube career to end.
* Geller was far from sharp in her first match back. We need her to be better if we’re going to make a run.
* SARA CHOY, ladies and gentlemen. That was a big time match against a player who’d been outstanding for Cal this year. And we needed it.
* Can’t be too mad at Higuchi for narrowly losing a match I expected her to lose, and I’m pretty excited about her fight in the second set. Having a player like Bright at 6 is a pretty wild luxury for Cal, even though she hasn’t been as dominant there as I’d have expected.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - tapcardinal - 04-17-2021

(04-14-2021, 09:18 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: So, Senior Day against Hawaii went about as expected, and we used the opportunity of playing a somewhat lesser opponent at this point in the season to rest some normal starters and let others get some matches in.

Gordon, Blake, and Geller all didn't play, though only Geller might be injury-based. That meant we saw a tweaked doubles lineup (Arbuthnott/Madurawe, Choy/Higuchi, and Houghton/Shin) take the doubles point before we saw this singles lineup race to a quick win:

1. Arbuthnott
2. Choy
3. Madurawe
4. Shin
5. Higuchi
6. Houghton

We didn't play it out, suggesting that the goal here was to honor the seniors and get off court before someone got injured in a match that ultimately doesn't matter much. Choy was off court first with a 6-3, 6-1 win, followed by Madurawe's 6-2, 6-1 win. (That's the first singles match inside the stadium for each of them, I believe.) Fittingly, it was Emma Higuchi who got the clincher, 7-5, 6-0 on Court 5. (Weird scoreline, but with Senior Day excitement, it's easy to imagine having a tough time getting into it, but then dominating once you do. I'll never complain about a slow start when the player turns it on later and takes control of a match.)

There's not a ton to draw from this match, but here are my takeaways:

1. The pecking order is interesting. Since you can't adjust a player's singles line more than one line per match (injuries/rest excepted), Lele basically thinks that this is the pecking order among the players who'd be on the lower courts. Choy, then Madurawe, then Shin, then Higuchi, then Houghton. That suggests that if Gordon/Blake/Geller are healthy, we'd see Choy at 5 and Madurawe at 6 against Cal. Considering the one-line rule, you could swap Shin over Madurawe at 6, or you could swap Higuchi over Shin and see Higuchi at 6 if Geller is still out or if Lele would prefer to rest some hypothetical soreness or tweak Madurawe might have. But if everyone's healthy? We just likely saw the last Taube match of Higuchi's career.

2. Of the matches that didn't finish, we were in command of two of them: Arbuthnott leading 6-1, 4-3 on Court 1, and Houghton leading 6-4, 3-2 on Court 6. Not worried about those. The concerning one? You guessed it! Janice Shin, who lost the first set 6-1 to Lea Romain, who has played in just half of Hawaii's matches with a 3-2 record, and who wasn't even in the top 6 to start the year, joining the lineup due to injuries. The talent differential is massive here. And Shin dropped a set. And not just a set--she ate a breadstick. Now, to be fair, Shin did come back and take the second set, but this has been the confusing saga of Janice Shin the last couple of years. As a freshman, she wasn't just solidly in the lineup at #5 singles, we depended on her for quick wins. In the Round of 16 against #1 UNC, she got the clincher over a ranked opponent in routine fashion, 6-3, 6-2. In the semis against Duke, she was second off court with a 6-1, 6-1 over another ranked opponent. And in the final against Vanderbilt, after Gordon's loss made it 2-2, she put us one match away with a 6-3, 6-3 win, with both Arbuthnott and Lord left on court. As a sophomore, in the last NCAA final contested, she clinched the national title! She was a dominant #5 against other elite teams. And then--she just didn't progress. More than that, she has regressed. Anyway. She deserves our eternal thanks for the dominance in her freshman and sophomore years, as they helped us get two titles. But it's hard to see a place in the singles lineup for her next year.

3. Nicole Mossmer is a scholarship player, a former blue chip recruit who was a Top 20 recruit in the country. And she is clearly figures absolutely nowhere in Lele's lineup. You'd think that some of the Houghton appearances this year could have been a match for Mossmer, but nothing. Could be that she's injured--we don't exactly have dedicated beat reporters that could find out that stuff. Or maybe she is redshirting, especially in this weird covid year. But the reason I mention it is that in the team picture for Senior Day, every player on the roster is there, even the ones who didn't play--except Mossmer. Curious to see what the fall season brings, once tournaments begin again.

New Rankings

The new ITA rankings are out, and Stanford is #29 in the computer rankings, a rise of 9 spots. (That's on the strength of the win over USC.). In the coaches' poll, Stanford stayed at #26. Around the Pac-12, UCLA is #8/#6, Cal is #25/#22, ASU is #33/#31, USC is #36/#32, Oregon is #47/#40, and Washington is #50/#45. Given the shortened season for Pac-12 teams, it makes sense that the computers aren't quite as impressed as the coaches are.

We also have new singles and doubles rankings for the first time in a while, and while the NCAA has asked for both the ITA computer and coaches' rankings for teams, they appear to be set on using the computer rankings for the singles and doubles championships, which should mean underrepresenting Pac-12 student-athletes. Only Gordon is ranked in singles at #41, and no Stanford doubles teams are ranked, suggesting that only Gordon will make an appearance in the NCAA singles championships at the end of the year--and that's only if she holds her spot, gets a couple good wins at Pac-12s, and doesn't take a bad loss.

I hope that the NCAA provides for a number of wild cards and uses those to restore a bit of geographic balance to NCAAs. The SEC and ACC are elite tennis conferences, don't get me wrong, but they're just overrepresented in the rankings right now, plain and simple.

A Periodic Reminder

Stanford women's tennis is the 2-time defending national champion.

Long time lurker here but recently have heard info on what is going on with Mossmer. Poor thing had to get a heart surgery in the fall of her freshman year and has been struggling to recover since. Unsure of any details beyond that but hopefully she is healthy and is on campus practicing with the team. I believe she won the national championships at San Diego in the U16 division and was one of the top recruits for her grade. I had faith for her and Blake to fill in the shoes of Caroline Lampl and Melissa Lord but it looks like it could be a long road ahead of her to be back to where she was pre-Stanford.

RE: Women's Tennis: Hawaii and Cal to end the regular season - ColoradoTree - 04-19-2021

Wow, here’s hoping Mossmer is getting healthy. Tennis is obviously secondary in a situation like that.

Another point in favor of the 40-year decision, folks. Sports isn’t forever.