[ColoradoTree]

The Round of 64 in singles went mostly as expected, with a couple of exceptions.  On the positive side, Lord, Gordon, Higuchi, and Shin all rolled over their opponents, and Arbuthnott won her match handily as well.  On the negative side, Yee withdrew with an injury in the second set after losing a tiebreaker in the first set to her seeded opponent.  Frustrating, since Yee needed a good fall to make the case for being in the lineup this spring, and she gets injured. 

But Yee playing well and pushing for the lineup is something of a luxury, since it looks like our intended six singles players are already set.  That just makes Caroline Lampl's upset loss all the more frustrating, as Lampl played #4 last year and thus had pole position on the #2 spot this year, with Davidson and Doyle graduating.  I couldn't see all of her match, but losing to an unranked opponent (especially after dispatching a Top 30 opponent with ease at the ITA All-Americans) is disheartening, because last spring, Lampl's play could be somewhat uneven--not putting away opponents as easily as she could, playing down to their level a bit, and struggling with finishing off a match.  Now, this isn't to discount the quality of her opponent, as Nevada Apollo was a solid recruit out of HS who mostly played #1 for Gonzaga last year (albeit due to injury to their regular #1, who returns this year).  But Lampl is ranked #51 in the country right now, so the expectations, fair or not, are higher now. 

I don't remember a season off the top of my head where our lineup order was so much in flux in so many positions before the season started.  Lord at #1 seems like the only sure thing, but 2-6 don't seem firmly settled at all.  I'm not sure that's a bad thing, as it could add some competitive spice to practices going forward. 

Anyway, looking at the Round of 32, the 5 remaining Stanford players should all be strongly favored in their matches.  Arbuthnott plays Portland's #2, who has a history of being a tough out, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Arbuthnott challenged in that one.  Lord shouldn't be challenged too much.  Higuchi's opponent is a freshman from Russia, so she's a bit of an unknown.  Gordon and Shin both play solid players that played at multiple spots in the singles lineup for their respective WCC schools last year, so while they won't be easy outs, I still expect both of our freshmen to win handily.  The Round of 16, where the tests get tougher, follows quickly after at 1:30 this afternoon, so with wins this morning, we'd likely see the following matchups:

* (1) Lord vs. (9-16) Shweta Sangwan (Oregon)
* (7) Arbuthnott vs. (9-16) Sophia Whittle (Gonzaga) (Whittle is Gonzaga's #1, over the player that beat Lampl in R64, so if Arbuthnott does well here, you can break out the transitive property to guess where Arbuthnott and Lampl sit relative to one another in Lele's mind.)
* (5) Higuchi vs. (9-16) Anna Bright (ןɐɔ).  Bright is another freshman that should feature for ןɐɔ this year, so this would be a nice test for Higuchi, but one I expect her to pass.
* (4) Gordon vs. (9-16) Katerina Stloukalova (Fresno State)
* (9-16) Shin vs. (2) Alyssa Tobita (Oregon).  Tobita is a terrific player who, as noted earlier, pushed both Lord and Doyle to the brink in matches last year, so this a great early opportunity for Shin.  With Lampl's loss, we need Shin to come through to keep alive the dream of all-Stanford semifinals!

Consolation play also kicks off today, with Lampl joining walk-ons Rosenberg, Lallas, Narayan, and Wolak there, so Lampl's not done with singles play just yet.  She gets ןɐɔ's Vivian Glozman, a highly-touted freshman, so here's hoping Lampl finds the fire she was missing yesterday and takes it out on ןɐɔ.

As for doubles, both our remaining pairs should win handily, but the bigger tests are to come against the other seeded pairs.  Lord/Lampl would get the top-seeded pair of Popovic/Hauger from ןɐɔ in the semifinals, while Arbuthnott/Gordon would get the 2nd-seeded team, Bright/Glozman (also from ןɐɔ), in the quarters. 

Oh, and things will get started a little late today, as they're still drying off the courts.  No more rain in the forecast, though, so once the courts are dry, they should get all of today's matches in. 

[ColoradoTree]

The Round of 64 in singles went mostly as expected, with a couple of exceptions.  On the positive side, Lord, Gordon, Higuchi, and Shin all rolled over their opponents, and Arbuthnott won her match handily as well.  On the negative side, Yee withdrew with an injury in the second set after losing a tiebreaker in the first set to her seeded opponent.  Frustrating, since Yee needed a good fall to make the case for being in the lineup this spring, and she gets injured. 

But Yee playing well and pushing for the lineup is something of a luxury, since it looks like our intended six singles players are already set.  That just makes Caroline Lampl's upset loss all the more frustrating, as Lampl played #4 last year and thus had pole position on the #2 spot this year, with Davidson and Doyle graduating.  I couldn't see all of her match, but losing to an unranked opponent (especially after dispatching a Top 30 opponent with ease at the ITA All-Americans) is disheartening, because last spring, Lampl's play could be somewhat uneven--not putting away opponents as easily as she could, playing down to their level a bit, and struggling with finishing off a match.  Now, this isn't to discount the quality of her opponent, as Nevada Apollo was a solid recruit out of HS who mostly played #1 for Gonzaga last year (albeit due to injury to their regular #1, who returns this year).  But Lampl is ranked #51 in the country right now, so the expectations, fair or not, are higher now. 

I don't remember a season off the top of my head where our lineup order was so much in flux in so many positions before the season started.  Lord at #1 seems like the only sure thing, but 2-6 don't seem firmly settled at all.  I'm not sure that's a bad thing, as it could add some competitive spice to practices going forward. 

Anyway, looking at the Round of 32, the 5 remaining Stanford players should all be strongly favored in their matches.  Arbuthnott plays Portland's #2, who has a history of being a tough out, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Arbuthnott challenged in that one.  Lord shouldn't be challenged too much.  Higuchi's opponent is a freshman from Russia, so she's a bit of an unknown.  Gordon and Shin both play solid players that played at multiple spots in the singles lineup for their respective WCC schools last year, so while they won't be easy outs, I still expect both of our freshmen to win handily.  The Round of 16, where the tests get tougher, follows quickly after at 1:30 this afternoon, so with wins this morning, we'd likely see the following matchups:

* (1) Lord vs. (9-16) Shweta Sangwan (Oregon)
* (7) Arbuthnott vs. (9-16) Sophia Whittle (Gonzaga) (Whittle is Gonzaga's #1, over the player that beat Lampl in R64, so if Arbuthnott does well here, you can break out the transitive property to guess where Arbuthnott and Lampl sit relative to one another in Lele's mind.)
* (5) Higuchi vs. (9-16) Anna Bright (ןɐɔ).  Bright is another freshman that should feature for ןɐɔ this year, so this would be a nice test for Higuchi, but one I expect her to pass.
* (4) Gordon vs. (9-16) Katerina Stloukalova (Fresno State)
* (9-16) Shin vs. (2) Alyssa Tobita (Oregon).  Tobita is a terrific player who, as noted earlier, pushed both Lord and Doyle to the brink in matches last year, so this a great early opportunity for Shin.  With Lampl's loss, we need Shin to come through to keep alive the dream of all-Stanford semifinals!

Consolation play also kicks off today, with Lampl joining walk-ons Rosenberg, Lallas, Narayan, and Wolak there, so Lampl's not done with singles play just yet.  She gets ןɐɔ's Vivian Glozman, a highly-touted freshman, so here's hoping Lampl finds the fire she was missing yesterday and takes it out on ןɐɔ.

As for doubles, both our remaining pairs should win handily, but the bigger tests are to come against the other seeded pairs.  Lord/Lampl would get the top-seeded pair of Popovic/Hauger from ןɐɔ in the semifinals, while Arbuthnott/Gordon would get the 2nd-seeded team, Bright/Glozman (also from ןɐɔ), in the quarters. 

Oh, and things will get started a little late today, as they're still drying off the courts.  No more rain in the forecast, though, so once the courts are dry, they should get all of today's matches in.