Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals

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Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-13-2022

The fall season kicks off in earnest at Taube today with the start of ITA Northwest Regionals. The real action doesn't start until tomorrow, but singles qualifying gets going today. This is one of my favorite events of the year because you see the depth of the entire team in the tournament and how they stack up against the best of our region (which includes Cal, UW, Oregon, and the other DI schools in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest). It usually gives us some early insight into what our lineup order is expected to be, too, though that doesn't always hold.

Here's a link to the tournament page: https://colleges.wearecollegetennis.com/competitions/StanfordUniversityW/Tournaments/draws/FE9C593A-6575-4C79-9A4F-69B1C3FB1F16/93CF9AE9-43FE-4649-97B4-B1AD068FB212

And here are the seeds!

Singles

(1) Connie Ma, Stanford
(2) Jessica Alsola, Cal
(3) Angelica Blake, Stanford
(4) Alexandra Yepifanova, Stanford
(5) Katja Wiersholm, Cal
(6) Alexis Blokhina, Stanford
(7) Hannah Viller Moeller, Cal
(8) Sarah-Maude Fortin, UW

(9) Valentina Ivanov, Cal
(9) Klara Kosan, UOP
(9) Sophie Luescher, Oregon
(9) Valencia Xu, Stanford
(9) Maria Martinez Vaquero, USF
(9) Iva Zelic, Portland
(9) Catherine Broerman, Gonzaga
(9) Hikaru Sato, UW

India Houghton and Ana Geller are in the main draw but unseeded, and Emma Sun is in the qualifying round today against U of Portland's Alaia Rubio Perez at 4:30pm.

Doubles

(1) Blake/Ma, Stanford
(2) Alsola/Wiersholm, Cal
(3) Jittakoat/Magrini, Fresno State
(4) Viller Moeller/Ivanov, Cal
(5) Yepifanova/Blokhina, Stanford
(6) Broerman/Sosnowska, Gonzaga
(7) Zelic/Pethybridge, Portland
(8) Fortin/Olsen, UW

Also in the draw are Houghton/Geller and Sara Choy pairing with Valencia Xu, though Choy is not in the singles draw.

Analysis

So, Blake being seeded above Yepifanova is interesting, and it suggests to me that we will see Blake at 2 over Yepifanova this year. Blokhina as the 6 seed suggests she's got the inside track to be 4th in the lineup, with Xu at 5 and one of Geller/Houghton/Choy at 6, though Choy skipping the singles while playing doubles might be a sign of what we can expect from her this year. Yepifanova at 3 will absolutely crush people.

Cal's Haley Giavara isn't here, and if she were, she'd be one of the top handful of seeds, too, but Alsola being #2 is a big jump from her preseason ranking of #50, which is behind Ma at #7, Yepifanova at #14, and Giavara at #25. (As a reminder, Xu was #83 and Blake was insultingly placed at #105.) I presume that Alsola's consolation singles title at All-Americans bumped her up (she got an injury walkover over 6th-seeded Carson Branstine of Texas A&M, beat USC's Snow Han in three sets, beat #125 Julia Fliegner of Michigan, and then won the championship match over #34 Solymar Colling of USD). As for Blake being put over Yepifanova in the seeding, that doesn't happen absent a strong indication from Lele about her internal pecking order.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - Lorcan - 10-14-2022

Ouch. It looks like Emma Sun did march through qualifying. Her reward? A date on court with (7) Hannah Viller Moeller, Cal. It'll be interesting to see how she does in that matchup.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-15-2022

Here's how Stanford did on the first full day of competition:

Singles:

* (1) Ma cruised in her two matches, winning 6-2, 6-1 in both of them. She'll play Cal's Erin Richardson in the Round of 32 tomorrow at 10:15am.
* (4) Yepifanova was much the same. She'll play Sac State's Mayya Gorbunova at 10:30am.
* Same with (9) Xu. She gets UOP's Olivia Wiese at 10:30am.
* (3) Blake, same thing. Easy first match (over Michaela Gordon's little sister Jenna), and the second wasn't much harder. Her opponent is TBD.
* (6) Blokhina, same thing.
* Houghton rolled in her first match and won her first set over Oregon's Lillian Mould 6-1 before Mould retired due to injury. So Houghton is through to the third round, likely against Cal's 2nd-seeded Jessica Alsola.
* Geller got smoked by UW's #1 player, 8th-seeded Sarah-Maude Fortin, 6-2, 6-1. You expect Geller to lose that match, but if she's going to show signs of what she was her freshman year, you'd like it to be more competitive, at least. Can she turn it around and roll to a consolation title, at least? She should easily be the class of that group. (Fortin then turned around and lost in 3 sets to WSU's #3 from last year. Sigh.)
* Sun got similarly smoked by Cal's Hannah Viller Moeller. Sigh.

If seeds hold from here on out, we're looking at the following quarterfinal matchups:

(1) Ma vs. (9) Luescher
(4) Yepifanova vs. (5) Wiersholm (though Xu is in line to play Wiersholm in the R16)
(3) Blake vs. (7) Viller Moeller
(2) Alsola vs. (6) Blokhina. I'd be pumped for that one.

Doubles

* (1) Blake/Ma needed a tiebreaker to get past a UC Davis duo, 8-7.
* (5) Yepifanova/Blokhina beat a Cal Poly duo, 8-3.
* Choy/Xu beat a Sac State pair 8-4.
* Geller/Houghton also needed a tiebreaker to win their first round match.

Second round of doubles is set for tomorrow morning, followed by the third round of singles late morning and then the Round of 16 in the afternoon.

Singles Round of 32:

* (1) Ma def. Richardson (Cal), 6-4, 7-5 (had a challenge!)
* (4) Yepifanova def. Gorbunova, 6-2, 6-1
* (9) Xu def. Wiese, 6-0, 6-0
* (3) Blake def. Young, 6-0, 6-2
* (6) Blokhina def. Kraleva, 6-2, 6-2
* Houghton lost to (2) Alsola (Cal) in three sets, 6-4, 1-6, 4-6. That's encouraging from her!

Round of 16 this afternoon:

* (1) Ma vs. Yana Gurevich
* (4) Yepifanova vs. (9) Ivanov (Cal)
* (9) Xu vs. (5) Wiersholm (Cal)
* (3) Blake vs. Tomi Main
* (6) Blokhina vs. (9) Broerman

Doubles Round of 32:

* (1) Blake/Ma won 8-2
* Geller/Houghton won 8-4
* (5) Yepifanova/Blokhina won 8-3
* Choy/Xu won 8-2

Doubles Round of 16 tomorrow morning:

* (1) Blake/Ma vs. Thiel/Richardson (Cal)
* Geller/Houghton vs. (7) Zelic/Pethybridge
* (5) Yepifanova/Blokhina vs. Yotova/Gorbunova
* Choy/Xu vs. (6) Broerman/Sosnowska

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-16-2022

Singles Round of 16:

* (1) Ma def. Gurevich 6-2, 6-2
* (4) Yepifanova def. (9) Ivanov 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
* (9) Xu lost to (5) Wiersholm, 2-6, 3-6
* (3) Blake def. Main 6-2, 6-3
* (6) Blokhina def. (9) Broerman 6-0, 6-3

Quarterfinals today at noon:

(1) Ma vs. Jittakoat
(4) Yepifanova vs. (5) Wiersholm
(3) Blake vs. (7) Viller Moeller
(6) Blokhina vs. (2) Alsola

A lot of Stanford-Cal on tap today! We should win three of four quarterfinals, but all-Stanford semis are still in play, especially if Blokhina comes out firing.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-16-2022

And it’s an all-Stanford semifinal! Blokhina had the toughest match, beating Alsola 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Semis will be Ma-Yepifanova and Blake-Blokhina sometime tomorrow, presumably, but the nice thing about all-Stanford semis is we can finish this thing whenever.

Doubles is another story, as just Choy-Xu and Blokhina-Yepifanova are left, and they’re on the same side of the draw.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-17-2022

Yepifanova pulled off the upset and beat Ma 6-3, 6-2! Surprising to see, for sure. Anyone get a chance to see that one?

In the other semi, Blake got past Blokhina 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

Feeling really optimistic about our top 4 right now! Final is at noon tomorrow.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-19-2022

Yepifanova won the singles title yesterday in a slugfest over Blake, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. That's her first collegiate title, so congrats to her!

Both of them automatically qualify for ITA Fall Nationals on Nov. 2-6 in San Diego. In past years, Ma's rank might have given her a shot at a wild card or at-large selection, but it's now a 32-player field instead of the old 64-player field, so the at-large selections got squeezed out. So, Ma won't have a chance to test herself against the best in the country this fall, making the fact Stanford didn't enter anyone at ITA All-Americans all the more frustrating. (The semifinalists at All-Americans all make the Fall Nationals field.) You get better by playing good players, and in that sense, this fall was a real missed opportunity for Stanford. Yepifanova and Blake will get some matches now, but they could've had more tough matches. As it is, Ma's only tough match this fall will have been against Yepifanova.

Up next for Stanford is the St. Mary's Invitational starting on Oct. 28. Unclear how strong the field will be, but last year it was basically a lot of the same teams that compete at the Northwest Regionals, so probably not a ton of new faces. But you never know--these fields can change quite a bit from year to year depending on other teams' schedules.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - BobK - 10-19-2022

Thanks for the continual updates.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - oldalum - 10-19-2022

CT, how does Blake's near-equal competitiveness with Yepifanova compare with last year? -- i.e., has Blake noticeably improved relative to Yepifanova?

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-19-2022

(10-19-2022, 11:26 AM)oldalum Wrote: CT, how does Blake's near-equal competitiveness with Yepifanova compare with last year? -- i.e., has Blake noticeably improved relative to Yepifanova?

It’s hard to say for sure until we see them against better competition outside the team. Could be that both have improved but Blake has taken a real jump or could be that both have fallen off but Yepifanova by a lot more.

Given that Yepifanova beat Ma and Blake was seeded above Yepifanova coming in, my working theory is that it’s the former. But I didn’t get the chance to watch much of this tournament, unfortunately, so I can’t comment too much on how Blake’s play has changed.

And if it’s that they’ve both improved a decent amount? That’s why I’m excited. Ma-Yepi-Blake-Blokhina-Xu is a terrific top 5, and Geller or Houghton should be in great shape at 6.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - cardfan77 - 10-19-2022

Is Sara Choy pulling a Michaela Gordon? Will remain on the roster but will not compete unless needed.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-24-2022

(10-19-2022, 05:43 PM)cardfan77 Wrote: Is Sara Choy pulling a Michaela Gordon? Will remain on the roster but will not compete unless needed.

Too early to say just how involved she'll be, but the fact she played doubles with Xu at Northwest Regionals suggests that she might at least be in the doubles lineup pairing with Xu. (Xu mostly played #2 doubles last year with Yepifanova, but if this Blokhina-Yepifanova pairing sticks, then it could be Choy-Xu or Geller-Houghton at the #3 spot. Of course, these could just be chemistry experiments and those pairings will continue to evolve for the next few months.)

In singles, I have more confidence in Choy than I do in Geller or Houghton, because she's been such a consistent performer over the years, whereas Geller can beat a top 25 player one minute and get crushed by a nobody the next. Houghton has never really delivered on her recruiting promise, and she struggled mightily at the #4 line last year. That said, we're likely talking about the #6 spot in the singles lineup for one of those three, with Blokhina and Xu above them, and each of those three ought to be able to dominate there. So having Choy as a singles insurance policy in case of injury could be a really nice benefit to have.

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - Lorcan - 10-27-2022

It's worth noting that Alexis Blokhina just took down World #48, Madison Brengle, at the W80K Challenger in Tyler Texas. She also beat a former foe of Stanford as she beat Ashley Lahey, formerly of Pepperdine, in the final round of qualifying. That's some good signs for our new freshman!

RE: Women's Tennis: Northwest Regionals - ColoradoTree - 10-27-2022

(10-27-2022, 11:00 AM)Lorcan Wrote: It's worth noting that Alexis Blokhina just took down World #48, Madison Brengle, at the W80K Challenger in Tyler Texas. She also beat a former foe of Stanford as she beat Ashley Lahey, formerly of Pepperdine, in the final round of qualifying. That's some good signs for our new freshman!

Fantastic stuff! And both were in very tough matches (3-6, 6-4, 6-4 over 2nd-seeded Brengle and 6-4, 3-6 with a 10-7 match tiebreaker over Lahey), so it demonstrates some terrific grit and fight. She plays Colombia's Emiliana Arango (career high of #220 on the WTA Tour, currently #253) in about 45 minutes or so, and if she can win that one and the other match goes to expectations, she'd get 2020 Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin in the next round.

Fall tennis for college players is all about challenging yourself and playing tough matches to get better. Losing doesn't hurt your team any, so take some risks and play tough matches. Absolutely love to see this from Blokhina, as it's a very different approach than what we usually see. It involves doing a week of school remotely, sure, but it strikes me as a reasonable accommodation for someone intent on playing professional tennis someday.

And she's past Arango, who retired after Blokhina won a second set tiebreaker. Our star freshman gets a Grand Slam winner next, at noon tomorrow.