[ColoradoTree]

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

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

What's at stake?

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

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

What about the Stanford players?

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

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

Singles preview (results are further down the thread):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does this mean for this season's lineup?

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

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

How do I watch? 

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

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

[ColoradoTree]

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

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

What's at stake?

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

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

What about the Stanford players?

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

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

Singles preview (results are further down the thread):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does this mean for this season's lineup?

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

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

How do I watch? 

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

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