[ColoradoTree]

Prediction: Stanford wins the rematch 4-0, behind the doubles point and singles wins on the back three courts.  Lampl gives a much better accounting of herself in the rematch, and is leading narrowly when the match is clinched, with Lord leading a close one and Gordon locked in a battle when their matches are abandoned. 

Give this man a prize for his fearless prediction!

I wasn't quite there on how each match would go, but I felt strongly we'd come out swinging playing outside in California (as opposed to indoors in Seattle), and I had a good feeling that Lord and Lampl would be much-improved and have an edge in their matches. Given how well Wong has been playing, however, I didn't think Lord would turn a close three-setter into 6-1, 6-1!  Man, if Lord is right?  Look out, folks.  

And I'm really pumped about Lampl, turning 1-6, 1-6 into 6-4, 6-3.  She plays with so much passion, and when everything else in her game is clicking, that passion is a heck of a wild card.

Arbuthnott struggling is hopefully just a one-off and she'll get right back to it.  I was hoping she'd have an easy match to take full advantage of how exhausted the WSU #4 (Mylonas) will be today after that third-set tiebreaker--if indeed it's Mylonas that plays #4 today. When they played a couple weeks ago, Arbuthnott played (and lost to) Michalkova, while Lampl rolled over Mylonas 6-4, 6-1 at #3. Yesterday, it was Michalkova at #3, where she got crushed by Cal's Olivia Hauger. Here's hoping it's a depleted Mylonas at #4, and Arbuthnott can take advantage.

The WSU's women's tennis roster looks more like a delegation of the Central Powers sent to negotiate the end of WWI at the Paris Peace Conference than an American sports team: two from Turkey, two from Germany, and one each from Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Uzbekistan. Not a native English speaker in sight!

This is really common these days if you want to have a competitive team, as there just isn't enough U.S.-born, college-bound talent to fill out all the Division I rosters.  While you see the occasional international player on Stanford's roster (Arbuthnott is from the UK, Zhao was from Canada), it's relatively rare.  But other teams lower on the food chain for prospects can either take a lesser American player or bring in a better foreign player. You see it a lot on Big 12 rosters, which is why schools like Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State have strong programs now but lack a strong history. Similarly, some of the lesser SEC programs have done it to keep up with Florida and Georgia, and some of the lesser Pac-12 programs have done it to try and keep pace with Stanford, UCLA, and Cal. (Cal usually has a few international players, but mostly domestic.)  

Frankly, USC would be wise to consider it--their stature as a destination program for U.S. players seems to have dropped off a bit, so they're signing 4-star and 5-star domestic players and fewer blue chips, and their competitiveness is suffering accordingly. (Though this year's roster still has 5 blue chips, so that's not the whole story.) It should be hard to beat USC; that it hasn't been hard the last couple of years is disappointing, and the kind of thing that hurts our ranking.  We've been able to get by with a relatively light schedule in the past because it was a given that Cal, UCLA, and USC would be highly ranked, so those would be three marquee matches. While beating UCLA this year is our signature win, beating Cal and USC just didn't move the needle like it would have in past years.

---

That was a big win for Wazzu.  Really impressive for the program, especially since they lost every single first set and still found a way to get three singles wins.  Let's take a look at our semifinal opponent.   

Washington State preview:

This is a breakout year for the Cougars, powered by freshman Michaela Bayerlova.  She's been a force at the top of their lineup, and her ranking has finally caught up with her quality, due to finishing the year by playing (and beating) a number of strong players to counteract WSU's profoundly weak non-conference schedule. (It is bad.)  Wazzu has long been a Pac-12 also-ran, so to see them beat USC in Los Angeles, to beat Oregon in Eugene, and now to beat Cal in the Pac-12 tournament?  Very impressive.  

We just saw them two weeks ago, so they should be relatively fresh in our minds.  There, we won the doubles point handily (a close match at 1, but strong wins at 2 and 3), before we ran into some trouble in singles. Lampl took care of business over Mylonas, 6-4, 6-1 to make it 2-0, but Arbuthnott was dispatched with relative ease at Court 4 to make it 2-1 Stanford. Lord toughed out a close win, 7-5, 6-4, to make it 3-1, but Bayerlova beat Gordon at #1 (2-6, 7-5, 6-2) to make it 3-2.  Shin, who started later due to there being just 4 indoor courts in Pullman, rolled in her match, 6-2, 6-0 to clinch. Higuchi came out uncharacteristically flat (perhaps unsurprising, though, since she didn't play doubles and had to wait for other singles matches to finish, which she wasn't used to while her opponent was), but she turned it around and looked like she was in control, 1-6, 6-1, 2-1. Had this match been played outside, it likely would've ended 4-1, with Shin off court first, Lampl soon after, Arbuthnott's loss, and then Lord clinching with Gordon and Higuchi still on court.

What are they good at?  

Like UW, start at the top.  While there is better talent throughout the lineup than expected, having Bayerlova as the anchor allows everyone else to play at a more appropriate level for them.  Bayerlova beat Cal's Rosenqvist yesterday in a very tough match, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, avenging her loss from two weeks ago. She also beat USC's Gabby Smith, not to mention Gordon two weeks ago.  

Matchups:

1. #16 Gordon vs. #26 Bayerlova
2. #68 Lord vs. Yusupova 
3. #94 Lampl vs. Michalkova
4. #51 Arbuthnott vs. Mylonas
5. #95 Shin vs. Miksovska
6. #109 Higuchi vs. Ates

Team comparisons: 

* UCLA: Stanford won 4-3; WSU lost 4-0
* USC: Stanford won 4-0; WSU won 4-1
* ASU: Stanford won 4-0; WSU lost 4-2 
* Oregon: Stanford won 6-1; WSU won 4-3
* UW: Stanford won 4-2 and 4-0; WSU lost 5-2
* Cal: Stanford won 4-0; WSU lost 4-3 and won 4-3

How to follow:  http://pac-12.com/tennis/championships-2018/scores

Prediction: Let's keep it rolling: Stanford wins the rematch 4-0. After the doubles point, Lord comes out firing, and so does Lampl, Shin has a slightly tougher time of it than last time (heck, she only lost two games last time around), and Higuchi doesn't come out flat. Gordon wins the first set, but it's a relatively slow-moving match, and she's only in the middle of the second when the match is abandoned. Arbuthnott looks better, but that one's also a slow-mover.  I think Shin and Higuchi both notch wins over tired opponents, while Lord and Lampl race to provide the clincher. 

---

I tried to make that a new post in the thread, but apparently you can't reply as a new post when you made the last one? Reasonable, but these two are really separate thoughts (one wrapping up yesterday and one previewing today). Oh, well.

[ColoradoTree]

Prediction: Stanford wins the rematch 4-0, behind the doubles point and singles wins on the back three courts.  Lampl gives a much better accounting of herself in the rematch, and is leading narrowly when the match is clinched, with Lord leading a close one and Gordon locked in a battle when their matches are abandoned. 

Give this man a prize for his fearless prediction!

I wasn't quite there on how each match would go, but I felt strongly we'd come out swinging playing outside in California (as opposed to indoors in Seattle), and I had a good feeling that Lord and Lampl would be much-improved and have an edge in their matches. Given how well Wong has been playing, however, I didn't think Lord would turn a close three-setter into 6-1, 6-1!  Man, if Lord is right?  Look out, folks.  

And I'm really pumped about Lampl, turning 1-6, 1-6 into 6-4, 6-3.  She plays with so much passion, and when everything else in her game is clicking, that passion is a heck of a wild card.

Arbuthnott struggling is hopefully just a one-off and she'll get right back to it.  I was hoping she'd have an easy match to take full advantage of how exhausted the WSU #4 (Mylonas) will be today after that third-set tiebreaker--if indeed it's Mylonas that plays #4 today. When they played a couple weeks ago, Arbuthnott played (and lost to) Michalkova, while Lampl rolled over Mylonas 6-4, 6-1 at #3. Yesterday, it was Michalkova at #3, where she got crushed by Cal's Olivia Hauger. Here's hoping it's a depleted Mylonas at #4, and Arbuthnott can take advantage.

The WSU's women's tennis roster looks more like a delegation of the Central Powers sent to negotiate the end of WWI at the Paris Peace Conference than an American sports team: two from Turkey, two from Germany, and one each from Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Uzbekistan. Not a native English speaker in sight!

This is really common these days if you want to have a competitive team, as there just isn't enough U.S.-born, college-bound talent to fill out all the Division I rosters.  While you see the occasional international player on Stanford's roster (Arbuthnott is from the UK, Zhao was from Canada), it's relatively rare.  But other teams lower on the food chain for prospects can either take a lesser American player or bring in a better foreign player. You see it a lot on Big 12 rosters, which is why schools like Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State have strong programs now but lack a strong history. Similarly, some of the lesser SEC programs have done it to keep up with Florida and Georgia, and some of the lesser Pac-12 programs have done it to try and keep pace with Stanford, UCLA, and Cal. (Cal usually has a few international players, but mostly domestic.)  

Frankly, USC would be wise to consider it--their stature as a destination program for U.S. players seems to have dropped off a bit, so they're signing 4-star and 5-star domestic players and fewer blue chips, and their competitiveness is suffering accordingly. (Though this year's roster still has 5 blue chips, so that's not the whole story.) It should be hard to beat USC; that it hasn't been hard the last couple of years is disappointing, and the kind of thing that hurts our ranking.  We've been able to get by with a relatively light schedule in the past because it was a given that Cal, UCLA, and USC would be highly ranked, so those would be three marquee matches. While beating UCLA this year is our signature win, beating Cal and USC just didn't move the needle like it would have in past years.

---

That was a big win for Wazzu.  Really impressive for the program, especially since they lost every single first set and still found a way to get three singles wins.  Let's take a look at our semifinal opponent.   

Washington State preview:

This is a breakout year for the Cougars, powered by freshman Michaela Bayerlova.  She's been a force at the top of their lineup, and her ranking has finally caught up with her quality, due to finishing the year by playing (and beating) a number of strong players to counteract WSU's profoundly weak non-conference schedule. (It is bad.)  Wazzu has long been a Pac-12 also-ran, so to see them beat USC in Los Angeles, to beat Oregon in Eugene, and now to beat Cal in the Pac-12 tournament?  Very impressive.  

We just saw them two weeks ago, so they should be relatively fresh in our minds.  There, we won the doubles point handily (a close match at 1, but strong wins at 2 and 3), before we ran into some trouble in singles. Lampl took care of business over Mylonas, 6-4, 6-1 to make it 2-0, but Arbuthnott was dispatched with relative ease at Court 4 to make it 2-1 Stanford. Lord toughed out a close win, 7-5, 6-4, to make it 3-1, but Bayerlova beat Gordon at #1 (2-6, 7-5, 6-2) to make it 3-2.  Shin, who started later due to there being just 4 indoor courts in Pullman, rolled in her match, 6-2, 6-0 to clinch. Higuchi came out uncharacteristically flat (perhaps unsurprising, though, since she didn't play doubles and had to wait for other singles matches to finish, which she wasn't used to while her opponent was), but she turned it around and looked like she was in control, 1-6, 6-1, 2-1. Had this match been played outside, it likely would've ended 4-1, with Shin off court first, Lampl soon after, Arbuthnott's loss, and then Lord clinching with Gordon and Higuchi still on court.

What are they good at?  

Like UW, start at the top.  While there is better talent throughout the lineup than expected, having Bayerlova as the anchor allows everyone else to play at a more appropriate level for them.  Bayerlova beat Cal's Rosenqvist yesterday in a very tough match, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, avenging her loss from two weeks ago. She also beat USC's Gabby Smith, not to mention Gordon two weeks ago.  

Matchups:

1. #16 Gordon vs. #26 Bayerlova
2. #68 Lord vs. Yusupova 
3. #94 Lampl vs. Michalkova
4. #51 Arbuthnott vs. Mylonas
5. #95 Shin vs. Miksovska
6. #109 Higuchi vs. Ates

Team comparisons: 

* UCLA: Stanford won 4-3; WSU lost 4-0
* USC: Stanford won 4-0; WSU won 4-1
* ASU: Stanford won 4-0; WSU lost 4-2 
* Oregon: Stanford won 6-1; WSU won 4-3
* UW: Stanford won 4-2 and 4-0; WSU lost 5-2
* Cal: Stanford won 4-0; WSU lost 4-3 and won 4-3

How to follow:  http://pac-12.com/tennis/championships-2018/scores

Prediction: Let's keep it rolling: Stanford wins the rematch 4-0. After the doubles point, Lord comes out firing, and so does Lampl, Shin has a slightly tougher time of it than last time (heck, she only lost two games last time around), and Higuchi doesn't come out flat. Gordon wins the first set, but it's a relatively slow-moving match, and she's only in the middle of the second when the match is abandoned. Arbuthnott looks better, but that one's also a slow-mover.  I think Shin and Higuchi both notch wins over tired opponents, while Lord and Lampl race to provide the clincher. 

---

I tried to make that a new post in the thread, but apparently you can't reply as a new post when you made the last one? Reasonable, but these two are really separate thoughts (one wrapping up yesterday and one previewing today). Oh, well.