[ColoradoTree]

FYI, if you try and follow along with live video, Stanford will be playing at the Leighton Family Courts, not the Lower Courts.  (If they end up indoors, I'm not sure about whether there will be live video, so we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.)

Wake has a lovely tennis facility, by the way. They built it with an eye towards hosting NCAAs as well as hosting the ATP's Winston-Salem Open.  As configured for NCAA play, there are 13 outdoor courts (it goes down to 12 when they're resurfaced and a couple are spread out for ATP tournament play).  They also have a very nice indoor facility, with 8 courts, so on days when it rains, they'll still be able to get mostly all of the matches in.  (If you recall last year's tournament, hosted by Georgia in Athens, we played our quarterfinal against UNC in Athens indoors due to rain, but because there were just four courts, other quarterfinalists had to drive to Atlanta to play in Georgia Tech's indoor facility, which also only had four courts, and then Stanford drew the short end of the stick for their semifinal match and had to drive to Atlanta to play Ohio State. That was not exactly ideal, so I'm very pleased that there are eight indoor courts at Wake.)  For competitive reasons, I'm not excited about playing North Carolina there (or Duke, should we get that far), but it's easy to see why the NCAA picked this facility. 

FYI, next year's tournament will be at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, then at Oklahoma State in Stillwater in 2020, then back to the USTA National Campus in 2021, and then at the University of Illinois in 2019.  Each presents their own competitive concerns, but Illinois presents the least.

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Excellent work as always, CT. One more relevant item - the weather.  The NCAA again has chosen to play in the South which is subject to rain and severe weather this time of year. Forecast for Thursday in Winston Salem - humid, with rain and a thunderstorm. Stanford vs. UNC may once again end up indoors. Bummer for the remote fans when the matches move indoors because the video set up is usually less comprehensive if video is available at all.

I completely agree with you on the frustration of trying to follow matches remotely that are played indoors.  Some schools are better than others, but it remains to be seen how good Wake's setup is.  If we do move indoors, then odds might tilt more towards UNC, who won Indoor Nationals earlier this spring, whereas we struggled in our two indoor matches this year. (Though we won both indoor matches in last year's NCAA tournament, in the QFs against UNC and the semis against Ohio State, so it's entirely possible I'm overthinking this.)

You know, if the NCAA is going to continue having the tennis championships in places where severe weather is possible or even probable, then Stanford's argument for not playing the ITA Kick-Off Weekend and then National Indoors gets a bit weaker.  As I understand it, Lele's rationale for opting out of National Indoors (and its feeder event, the Kick-Off Weekend) was based, at least in part, on the fact that NCAA titles are decided outdoors, so she'd rather schedule tough non-conference matchups and play them outdoors rather than have an indoors tournament.  Also, over the course of the year, our team seems to improve at a faster rate than other teams, so avoiding early-season tough matchups may have figured in, too.  (Also, the team flies to Hawaii every year, so some of the tennis budget may be tied up there.)  And from the outside looking in, I wonder if limiting the physical toll on her players over the course of the year factors in as well, so they're in peak condition for NCAAs and not a little tired from an overly tough schedule.  Fair reasons, and I have to qualify even the mildest criticism of Coach Forood with recognition that whatever quibbles you have with her scheduling approach and its effect on our seeding, she has won the NCAA tournament seeded 8th, 12th, and 15th, so her approach has worked.  

But.  If you're going to possibly play a couple of NCAA tournament matches indoors, and you will likely end up playing tough matches against improving UW and Wazzu teams indoors, then it's not unreasonable to say that some additional preparation on indoor courts would be a good hedge against bad weather in the NCAAs.

[ColoradoTree]

FYI, if you try and follow along with live video, Stanford will be playing at the Leighton Family Courts, not the Lower Courts.  (If they end up indoors, I'm not sure about whether there will be live video, so we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.)

Wake has a lovely tennis facility, by the way. They built it with an eye towards hosting NCAAs as well as hosting the ATP's Winston-Salem Open.  As configured for NCAA play, there are 13 outdoor courts (it goes down to 12 when they're resurfaced and a couple are spread out for ATP tournament play).  They also have a very nice indoor facility, with 8 courts, so on days when it rains, they'll still be able to get mostly all of the matches in.  (If you recall last year's tournament, hosted by Georgia in Athens, we played our quarterfinal against UNC in Athens indoors due to rain, but because there were just four courts, other quarterfinalists had to drive to Atlanta to play in Georgia Tech's indoor facility, which also only had four courts, and then Stanford drew the short end of the stick for their semifinal match and had to drive to Atlanta to play Ohio State. That was not exactly ideal, so I'm very pleased that there are eight indoor courts at Wake.)  For competitive reasons, I'm not excited about playing North Carolina there (or Duke, should we get that far), but it's easy to see why the NCAA picked this facility. 

FYI, next year's tournament will be at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, then at Oklahoma State in Stillwater in 2020, then back to the USTA National Campus in 2021, and then at the University of Illinois in 2019.  Each presents their own competitive concerns, but Illinois presents the least.

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Excellent work as always, CT. One more relevant item - the weather.  The NCAA again has chosen to play in the South which is subject to rain and severe weather this time of year. Forecast for Thursday in Winston Salem - humid, with rain and a thunderstorm. Stanford vs. UNC may once again end up indoors. Bummer for the remote fans when the matches move indoors because the video set up is usually less comprehensive if video is available at all.

I completely agree with you on the frustration of trying to follow matches remotely that are played indoors.  Some schools are better than others, but it remains to be seen how good Wake's setup is.  If we do move indoors, then odds might tilt more towards UNC, who won Indoor Nationals earlier this spring, whereas we struggled in our two indoor matches this year. (Though we won both indoor matches in last year's NCAA tournament, in the QFs against UNC and the semis against Ohio State, so it's entirely possible I'm overthinking this.)

You know, if the NCAA is going to continue having the tennis championships in places where severe weather is possible or even probable, then Stanford's argument for not playing the ITA Kick-Off Weekend and then National Indoors gets a bit weaker.  As I understand it, Lele's rationale for opting out of National Indoors (and its feeder event, the Kick-Off Weekend) was based, at least in part, on the fact that NCAA titles are decided outdoors, so she'd rather schedule tough non-conference matchups and play them outdoors rather than have an indoors tournament.  Also, over the course of the year, our team seems to improve at a faster rate than other teams, so avoiding early-season tough matchups may have figured in, too.  (Also, the team flies to Hawaii every year, so some of the tennis budget may be tied up there.)  And from the outside looking in, I wonder if limiting the physical toll on her players over the course of the year factors in as well, so they're in peak condition for NCAAs and not a little tired from an overly tough schedule.  Fair reasons, and I have to qualify even the mildest criticism of Coach Forood with recognition that whatever quibbles you have with her scheduling approach and its effect on our seeding, she has won the NCAA tournament seeded 8th, 12th, and 15th, so her approach has worked.  

But.  If you're going to possibly play a couple of NCAA tournament matches indoors, and you will likely end up playing tough matches against improving UW and Wazzu teams indoors, then it's not unreasonable to say that some additional preparation on indoor courts would be a good hedge against bad weather in the NCAAs.