[ColoradoTree]

Gordon takes the first set 7-5 in a back-and-forth affair.  Both players looked strong early, but Arbuthnott got the first break of serve to go up 2-1, and then consolidated to take a 3-1 lead.  Gordon was down 15-40 on her serve, but won three straight points to hold and make it 3-2 instead of Arbuthnott taking a commanding 4-1 lead.  It felt pivotal at the time, and it was.  Gordon promptly broke Arbuthnott to knot the match up at 3 games apiece, and held to go up 4-3.  Arbuthnott held to 4-4, winning on a lengthy rally on deciding point that was terrific to watch.  They then traded dominant service games to get to 5-5, and Gordon survived a break point to hold to get to 6-5.  Trying to force a first-set tiebreaker, Arbuthnott got more aggressive, but to her detriment--she missed a few lines and Gordon got the break and the set. 

Early thoughts:  Gordon is more powerful and isn't afraid of the lines, but that led to some instances of her putting the ball just long or just wide when attacking the baseline and sidelines, respectively, though it's also led to some jaw-dropping winners down the line.  Arbuthnott is a wall, and while she doesn't have the same raw power that Gordon does, she's happy playing a power game, because she doesn't make too many mistakes (when she has so far, it's been hitting into the net as opposed to wide or deep, like she's not quite turning on the ball in time due to Gordon's power).  Temperament-wise, Arbuthnott is more demonstrative than Gordon, but that's not saying much--Gordon is very even-keeled.  Also, I don't have the 1st vs. 2nd serve statistics, but Gordon's second serve is appreciably slower than her first, and Arbuthnott was taking advantage.  When Gordon's first serve was in, she dictated the point and kept Arbuthnott on her heels.  But generally, her second serve points were the opposite. 

[ColoradoTree]

Gordon takes the first set 7-5 in a back-and-forth affair.  Both players looked strong early, but Arbuthnott got the first break of serve to go up 2-1, and then consolidated to take a 3-1 lead.  Gordon was down 15-40 on her serve, but won three straight points to hold and make it 3-2 instead of Arbuthnott taking a commanding 4-1 lead.  It felt pivotal at the time, and it was.  Gordon promptly broke Arbuthnott to knot the match up at 3 games apiece, and held to go up 4-3.  Arbuthnott held to 4-4, winning on a lengthy rally on deciding point that was terrific to watch.  They then traded dominant service games to get to 5-5, and Gordon survived a break point to hold to get to 6-5.  Trying to force a first-set tiebreaker, Arbuthnott got more aggressive, but to her detriment--she missed a few lines and Gordon got the break and the set. 

Early thoughts:  Gordon is more powerful and isn't afraid of the lines, but that led to some instances of her putting the ball just long or just wide when attacking the baseline and sidelines, respectively, though it's also led to some jaw-dropping winners down the line.  Arbuthnott is a wall, and while she doesn't have the same raw power that Gordon does, she's happy playing a power game, because she doesn't make too many mistakes (when she has so far, it's been hitting into the net as opposed to wide or deep, like she's not quite turning on the ball in time due to Gordon's power).  Temperament-wise, Arbuthnott is more demonstrative than Gordon, but that's not saying much--Gordon is very even-keeled.  Also, I don't have the 1st vs. 2nd serve statistics, but Gordon's second serve is appreciably slower than her first, and Arbuthnott was taking advantage.  When Gordon's first serve was in, she dictated the point and kept Arbuthnott on her heels.  But generally, her second serve points were the opposite. 

[ColoradoTree]

And it's Gordon!  7-5, 6-2, and Michaela Gordon is your ITA Northwest Regional Champion!

After Gordon broke Arbuthnott to take the first set, Arbuthnott returned the favor by breaking Gordon to open the second, only for another break of serve to make it 1-1.  Gordon then held to 2-1, and broke Arbuthnott (on a really well-played deciding point) to go up 3-1, but Arbuthnott responded with a well-played deciding point of her own, breaking Gordon to get back on serve at 3-2.  Gordon got the break back to go up 4-2 and had a steady service game to go up 5-2.  Serving to stay in the match, Arbuthnott showed a lot of good (crisper, commanding ground strokes) and bad (two double faults, a mishit), but it was Gordon's consistency in the game that decided it.  Gordon is the third Stanford freshman since 2010 to win the ITA Regionals, and the way in which she did it--not dropping a set, and winning 10 of 12 sets by 6-2 or better, including 6-1, 6-0 scorelines in both the quarters and the semis--shows we got a really good one in Michaela Gordon. 

[ColoradoTree]

And it's Gordon!  7-5, 6-2, and Michaela Gordon is your ITA Northwest Regional Champion!

After Gordon broke Arbuthnott to take the first set, Arbuthnott returned the favor by breaking Gordon to open the second, only for another break of serve to make it 1-1.  Gordon then held to 2-1, and broke Arbuthnott (on a really well-played deciding point) to go up 3-1, but Arbuthnott responded with a well-played deciding point of her own, breaking Gordon to get back on serve at 3-2.  Gordon got the break back to go up 4-2 and had a steady service game to go up 5-2.  Serving to stay in the match, Arbuthnott showed a lot of good (crisper, commanding ground strokes) and bad (two double faults, a mishit), but it was Gordon's consistency in the game that decided it.  Gordon is the third Stanford freshman since 2010 to win the ITA Regionals, and the way in which she did it--not dropping a set, and winning 10 of 12 sets by 6-2 or better, including 6-1, 6-0 scorelines in both the quarters and the semis--shows we got a really good one in Michaela Gordon. 

[oldalum]

thanks for the detailed story. Great that Arbuthnott is playing so well; what I saw yesterday clearly was not an anomaly. We appear to have some very strong players at present: strong 1-4 and very credible 5-6 players. Seems like there could be stiff competition for each spot in the lineup, including #1, which is great. Plus, one consistent feature of our teams is that they improve significantly over the school year. A lot to look forward to this year!

(now if only my own game could improve . . . )

[oldalum]

thanks for the detailed story. Great that Arbuthnott is playing so well; what I saw yesterday clearly was not an anomaly. We appear to have some very strong players at present: strong 1-4 and very credible 5-6 players. Seems like there could be stiff competition for each spot in the lineup, including #1, which is great. Plus, one consistent feature of our teams is that they improve significantly over the school year. A lot to look forward to this year!

(now if only my own game could improve . . . )

[ColoradoTree]

Takeaways from this tournament:

* Michaela Gordon has it.  She played dominant tennis the entire tournament, getting pressed in only one set (today's first set).  She sure looks like our #2.  It doesn't mean she will be--Higuchi beat Carolines Doyle and Lampl in last year's Northwest Regionals but still played #6, while Doyle ended up at #1 and Lampl played #4--and this is just one tournament.  But she has the physical tools to dominate. 
* Emily Arbuthnott has taken a big step.  She had a good offseason, winning an ITF title in both singles and doubles, and participating on Great Britain's team for the University Games.  On a team where the 2-5 spots look relatively unsettled, she made a great case for herself here. 
* Melissa Lord is going to be just fine.  Looked terrific in stretches, and even when she was pressed (by Oregon's Sangwan, most notably, who has taken a big step herself), she dug deep and was able to put matches away, at least before she met Arbuthnott, who was playing with her hair on fire.
* Janice Shin has some great fight in her, and a short memory.  She dropped a 6-0 second set to 2-seed Alyssa Tobita (ranked #48), and could have easily folded, but gutted out a win and then won her next match in a third-set tiebreaker, before running into the Michaela Gordon buzz saw. 
* Emma Higuchi, our most dependable singles player last year, can struggle when she plays more powerful players.  That bit her here, where she cruised through her first two matches by 6,1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0 scores before she ran up against ןɐɔ's Anna Bright, who is a big hitter.  Then, in a consolation match, she lost to another big-hitting ןɐɔ freshman, 5'11" Vivian Glozman. 
* Caroline Lampl had an off day, losing to Gonzaga's Nevada Apollo (who played #1 for her team much of last season), but took some of that frustration out by winning both of her matches in the consolation bracket, including shaking off a first set loss vs. ןɐɔ's Glozman to win the second 6-2 and then win the supertiebreak for the match. 
* Kimberly Yee can't catch a break.  The former blue chip recruit from Las Vegas, now a junior, has struggled to break into the lineup, though she acquitted herself reasonably well at the #6 singles spot her freshman year.  But she was passed over by both Higuchi and Arbuthnott last year, leaving her the odd woman out.  With two spots opening up after Doyle and Davidson graduated, I'd hoped that she would grab one of them and not let herself be supplanted by two freshman yet again.  This was a big opportunity to prove herself, and after rolling in her first round match, she had to withdraw with an injury in her second round match, which meant she and Higuchi were out of the doubles tournament as well.

On the doubles side of things, it's not at all clear that the pairings in this tournament--Lampl/Lord, Arbuthnott/Gordon, and Higuchi/Yee--are the ones we'll see in the spring.  At last year's Northwest Regionals, Lampl and Yee teamed up and made it to the final, narrowly losing a third-set supertiebreak to ןɐɔ's Popovic/Hauger, but Yee only played two doubles matches in the dual season.  Given the current format of a quick doubles point before the singles play starts, it seems that Lele's preference is to get her singles players warmed up as part of that doubles, so the pairs in the spring will likely come from those six singles players.  And the fact that Arbuthnott/Gordon pushed the eventual doubles champions, Oregon's Sangwan/Tobita, to a supertiebreak, suggests that they've developed a bit of chemistry together.  If so, no reason to split them up. 

[ColoradoTree]

Takeaways from this tournament:

* Michaela Gordon has it.  She played dominant tennis the entire tournament, getting pressed in only one set (today's first set).  She sure looks like our #2.  It doesn't mean she will be--Higuchi beat Carolines Doyle and Lampl in last year's Northwest Regionals but still played #6, while Doyle ended up at #1 and Lampl played #4--and this is just one tournament.  But she has the physical tools to dominate. 
* Emily Arbuthnott has taken a big step.  She had a good offseason, winning an ITF title in both singles and doubles, and participating on Great Britain's team for the University Games.  On a team where the 2-5 spots look relatively unsettled, she made a great case for herself here. 
* Melissa Lord is going to be just fine.  Looked terrific in stretches, and even when she was pressed (by Oregon's Sangwan, most notably, who has taken a big step herself), she dug deep and was able to put matches away, at least before she met Arbuthnott, who was playing with her hair on fire.
* Janice Shin has some great fight in her, and a short memory.  She dropped a 6-0 second set to 2-seed Alyssa Tobita (ranked #48), and could have easily folded, but gutted out a win and then won her next match in a third-set tiebreaker, before running into the Michaela Gordon buzz saw. 
* Emma Higuchi, our most dependable singles player last year, can struggle when she plays more powerful players.  That bit her here, where she cruised through her first two matches by 6,1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0 scores before she ran up against ןɐɔ's Anna Bright, who is a big hitter.  Then, in a consolation match, she lost to another big-hitting ןɐɔ freshman, 5'11" Vivian Glozman. 
* Caroline Lampl had an off day, losing to Gonzaga's Nevada Apollo (who played #1 for her team much of last season), but took some of that frustration out by winning both of her matches in the consolation bracket, including shaking off a first set loss vs. ןɐɔ's Glozman to win the second 6-2 and then win the supertiebreak for the match. 
* Kimberly Yee can't catch a break.  The former blue chip recruit from Las Vegas, now a junior, has struggled to break into the lineup, though she acquitted herself reasonably well at the #6 singles spot her freshman year.  But she was passed over by both Higuchi and Arbuthnott last year, leaving her the odd woman out.  With two spots opening up after Doyle and Davidson graduated, I'd hoped that she would grab one of them and not let herself be supplanted by two freshman yet again.  This was a big opportunity to prove herself, and after rolling in her first round match, she had to withdraw with an injury in her second round match, which meant she and Higuchi were out of the doubles tournament as well.

On the doubles side of things, it's not at all clear that the pairings in this tournament--Lampl/Lord, Arbuthnott/Gordon, and Higuchi/Yee--are the ones we'll see in the spring.  At last year's Northwest Regionals, Lampl and Yee teamed up and made it to the final, narrowly losing a third-set supertiebreak to ןɐɔ's Popovic/Hauger, but Yee only played two doubles matches in the dual season.  Given the current format of a quick doubles point before the singles play starts, it seems that Lele's preference is to get her singles players warmed up as part of that doubles, so the pairs in the spring will likely come from those six singles players.  And the fact that Arbuthnott/Gordon pushed the eventual doubles champions, Oregon's Sangwan/Tobita, to a supertiebreak, suggests that they've developed a bit of chemistry together.  If so, no reason to split them up. 

[ColoradoTree]

Michaela's title run made one of the local papers: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/24/bl...-stanford/

The only really newsworthy takeaway: Lele sees what the rest of us do in Gordon, and when asked whether, aside from Lord, she could leapfrog the rest of the squad and play #2, she said:  “Absolutely it’s possible. We’ll see. We don’t make those decisions really until January. We need more results for everybody, but I think we envisioned her coming in and making a big statement this year.”  So, no guarantees.  But Lele definitely doesn't sound like she's of a mind to just put Gordon at #5 because she's a freshman. 

[ColoradoTree]

Michaela's title run made one of the local papers: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/24/bl...-stanford/

The only really newsworthy takeaway: Lele sees what the rest of us do in Gordon, and when asked whether, aside from Lord, she could leapfrog the rest of the squad and play #2, she said:  “Absolutely it’s possible. We’ll see. We don’t make those decisions really until January. We need more results for everybody, but I think we envisioned her coming in and making a big statement this year.”  So, no guarantees.  But Lele definitely doesn't sound like she's of a mind to just put Gordon at #5 because she's a freshman.