[ColoradoTree]

Arbuthnott with a tough 3-set victory over Shin 6-4 5-7 6-2 sees her join Lampl, Gordon, and Hauger in the semis.

This result took some of the sting out of Lord losing to Hauger. Arbuthnott has shown she can compete with top players in the country, and that's borne out by her Top 25 ranking. Shin has just one year of college tennis under her belt (an excellent year, I'll grant you), and she's pushing Arbuthnott to the limit. Good! That's what we want to see out of our younger players! 

The singles semifinals are today at 1:00pm. At this point, Gordon, Lord, and Arbuthnott have all effectively locked up at-large bids to Fall Nationals, but one of Gordon or Arbuthnott will make it official by making the final. Lampl could make it four Stanford singles players at Fall Nationals if she can make the final over Hauger. (Hauger, for what it's worth, is probably also going to get an at-large spot with her performance here, whether she wins today or not, but Lampl probably needs the automatic berth.) I don't think Lampl is scared of anyone right now, having knocked off #9 Stacey Fung of UW. And it's fair to say she knows Hauger pretty well: 

* Three years ago, in the #5 slot, Lampl beat Hauger 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the first Stanford-Cal match of the year, and won again 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to clinch the second match (that year, as we used to, we played Cal twice, with only one of the matches counting for conference standings). But she then lost to Hauger in the Pac-12 tournament singles final, 6-1, 6-4. (This was before the Pac-12 moved to having a team tournament, rather than singles and doubles tournaments). 

* Two years ago, in the #4 slot, Lampl beat Hauger 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 at the #4 spot in the dual match, and then was on serve early in the third set of the Pac-12 championship when the match was called (Hauger was technically leading 6-7, 6-2, 1-0, but they were on serve).

* Last year, in the #3 slot, Hauger won the first set in a tiebreaker, but Lampl was up 1-0 in the second set. 

So, from my quick research, it looks like Lampl has a 3-1 career record over Hauger, with all three of Lampl's wins coming in three-set marathons in team play. Hauger's lone win was in individual tournament play, however, and like I've said about Lampl before, she is the consummate team player--she elevates her play when a team result is on the line, but her individual tournament play sometime hasn't reached that level. In short, Lampl knows she can beat her, but Hauger knows she can beat Lampl. If I were in town early for the reunion weekend, I'd be at this match today. 

In the other semifinal, I want Gordon to win for the same reason I wanted Lampl to beat Choy and Gordon to beat Madurawe. I want our best players to consistently be our best players. I want Gordon to have a little more of a killer instinct than she did last year, so ideally, Arbuthnott pushes her, but Gordon finds another gear and pulls it off. Something like last year's Northwest Regional championship scoreline of 7-5, 6-2 would fit the bill nicely. 

P.S. If Hauger ends up winning this tournament, I'm going to scream.

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Oh, and the doubles semifinals will also be at 1:00pm.  Madurawe/Yee are into the semis vs. Washington's Fung/Zupancic, while the other semifinal is Cal's Bright/Dunk vs. Oregon's Eshet/Sangwan. 

After Shin's lengthy and tough loss to Arbuthnott in singles, she had to turn around and play her doubles quarterfinal with Lord against Cal's Anna Bright and Jasie Dunk, and Lord/Shin lost 8-6, so the gambit to send another team to Fall Nationals fell short.  Sure, Madurawe/Yee are still alive, but Yee already qualified for Fall Nationals with Lampl, and that's the team this spring, so Madurawe won't book a ticket with a win at this tournament. (I suppose it's possible that Fall Nationals might let Madurawe partner with another player, but when this situation happened last year, and UCLA's Jada Hart qualified for doubles with two different partners, the second partner stayed home, so based on that, I'm assuming they won't allow it.) More likely is that since Lord will be there already for singles, they might let her play with Shin if there's a withdrawal and a need for an alternate, but I suspect a team of two already-qualified singles players would take precedent. But tournament wins are tournament wins, so let's get both titles!

[ColoradoTree]

Arbuthnott with a tough 3-set victory over Shin 6-4 5-7 6-2 sees her join Lampl, Gordon, and Hauger in the semis.

This result took some of the sting out of Lord losing to Hauger. Arbuthnott has shown she can compete with top players in the country, and that's borne out by her Top 25 ranking. Shin has just one year of college tennis under her belt (an excellent year, I'll grant you), and she's pushing Arbuthnott to the limit. Good! That's what we want to see out of our younger players! 

The singles semifinals are today at 1:00pm. At this point, Gordon, Lord, and Arbuthnott have all effectively locked up at-large bids to Fall Nationals, but one of Gordon or Arbuthnott will make it official by making the final. Lampl could make it four Stanford singles players at Fall Nationals if she can make the final over Hauger. (Hauger, for what it's worth, is probably also going to get an at-large spot with her performance here, whether she wins today or not, but Lampl probably needs the automatic berth.) I don't think Lampl is scared of anyone right now, having knocked off #9 Stacey Fung of UW. And it's fair to say she knows Hauger pretty well: 

* Three years ago, in the #5 slot, Lampl beat Hauger 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the first Stanford-Cal match of the year, and won again 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to clinch the second match (that year, as we used to, we played Cal twice, with only one of the matches counting for conference standings). But she then lost to Hauger in the Pac-12 tournament singles final, 6-1, 6-4. (This was before the Pac-12 moved to having a team tournament, rather than singles and doubles tournaments). 

* Two years ago, in the #4 slot, Lampl beat Hauger 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 at the #4 spot in the dual match, and then was on serve early in the third set of the Pac-12 championship when the match was called (Hauger was technically leading 6-7, 6-2, 1-0, but they were on serve).

* Last year, in the #3 slot, Hauger won the first set in a tiebreaker, but Lampl was up 1-0 in the second set. 

So, from my quick research, it looks like Lampl has a 3-1 career record over Hauger, with all three of Lampl's wins coming in three-set marathons in team play. Hauger's lone win was in individual tournament play, however, and like I've said about Lampl before, she is the consummate team player--she elevates her play when a team result is on the line, but her individual tournament play sometime hasn't reached that level. In short, Lampl knows she can beat her, but Hauger knows she can beat Lampl. If I were in town early for the reunion weekend, I'd be at this match today. 

In the other semifinal, I want Gordon to win for the same reason I wanted Lampl to beat Choy and Gordon to beat Madurawe. I want our best players to consistently be our best players. I want Gordon to have a little more of a killer instinct than she did last year, so ideally, Arbuthnott pushes her, but Gordon finds another gear and pulls it off. Something like last year's Northwest Regional championship scoreline of 7-5, 6-2 would fit the bill nicely. 

P.S. If Hauger ends up winning this tournament, I'm going to scream.

---

Oh, and the doubles semifinals will also be at 1:00pm.  Madurawe/Yee are into the semis vs. Washington's Fung/Zupancic, while the other semifinal is Cal's Bright/Dunk vs. Oregon's Eshet/Sangwan. 

After Shin's lengthy and tough loss to Arbuthnott in singles, she had to turn around and play her doubles quarterfinal with Lord against Cal's Anna Bright and Jasie Dunk, and Lord/Shin lost 8-6, so the gambit to send another team to Fall Nationals fell short.  Sure, Madurawe/Yee are still alive, but Yee already qualified for Fall Nationals with Lampl, and that's the team this spring, so Madurawe won't book a ticket with a win at this tournament. (I suppose it's possible that Fall Nationals might let Madurawe partner with another player, but when this situation happened last year, and UCLA's Jada Hart qualified for doubles with two different partners, the second partner stayed home, so based on that, I'm assuming they won't allow it.) More likely is that since Lord will be there already for singles, they might let her play with Shin if there's a withdrawal and a need for an alternate, but I suspect a team of two already-qualified singles players would take precedent. But tournament wins are tournament wins, so let's get both titles!