01-15-2019, 10:42 AM
Just to follow up, Stanford posted a NCTC recap last night, confirming certain results but with slightly different scorelines in places:
Singles
Round of 32 results:
Sara Choy d. Maria Tyrina (USD) 7-6, 6-2
Round of 16 results:
(1) Gordon lost to USD's Solymar Colling, 7-5, 6-3
(2) Arbuthnott d. Daniela Morales (USD) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
(3) Higuchi d. Marie Van Aelst (Arizona) 6-3, 6-4
(4) Shin d. Taylor Johnson (UCLA) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
Choy d. #114 Anna Vrbenska (Ole Miss) 6-3, 6-2
Quarterfinal results
(3) Higuchi d. #86 Emma Wilson (Arizona) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4
(4) Shin d. Choy 6-4, 7-5
(2) Arbuthnott d. Kati Kukaras (USD) 7-6, 6-0
Doubles
Choy/Shin lost to Garcia/Kukaras (USD) 7-5 in Round of 16
Arbuthnott/Gordon d. Chow/Tyrina (USD) 6-3 in QF
Arbuthnott/Gordon d. Van Aelst/Wesbrooks (Arizona) 7-6 in SF
Quick thoughts:
I'm encouraged by Choy's progress and performance that she could not only knock off a ranked opponent with ease (Vrbenska played #4 for Ole Miss last year, and will likely be the Rebels' #3 this year, and recall that Ole Miss is currently #12 in the country and finished last year ranked #8, so she's a player), but also gave Janice Shin, who held down our #5 spot with aplomb last year as a freshman, everything she could handle.
Higuchi's growth is also encouraging; beating Van Aelst (Arizona's #5 last year) doesn't move the needle, because she ought to be beating folks like that. But Emma Wilson is ranked in the top 100 for a reason. She was Fresno State's #1 player before transferring, and will probably be Arizona's #1 this year. Take that with a grain of salt, as Arizona was dreadful last year and doesn't look to be much better this year (the Wildcats went 0-10 in conference and lost 2 of its top 3 to graduation and the third as a transfer to LSU). But it's still a good win.
I'm not going to lose any sleep over Gordon taking an upset loss. Individual tournament tennis is a different animal from team play, and this is the same Michaela Gordon who knocked off some of the top players in the country on her road to winning the USTA Blizzard Wild Card Challenge a few weeks ago. She ran into a freshman who clearly was playing great tennis, and who was a 5-star recruit herself. It happens. (Colling, fyi, probably should have been tabbed as a blue chip, given that she was a top 15 recruit by the time her senior year finished, but she was ranked in the 30s as a recruit when she signed her NLI with USD, which itself was a brobdingnagian jump from the year before, when she wasn't ranked in the top 100 of recruits. She's a player who has improved a lot each of the past few years, so San Diego looks to have gotten a good one there.)
But the better test comes this weekend in Las Vegas. The rescheduling of the NCTC should mean that we see a lot of full rosters at the Freeman, which will mean a lot of individual All-Americans in the field. Taking the preseason rankings as a guide, and just looking at the Top 30 players, the #1, #2, #4, #10, #13, #15, #19, #21, #24, and #27 players could all be there. A great opportunity to shake off rust and to pick up some wins that will really boost some of our players' rankings.
Singles
Round of 32 results:
Sara Choy d. Maria Tyrina (USD) 7-6, 6-2
Round of 16 results:
(1) Gordon lost to USD's Solymar Colling, 7-5, 6-3
(2) Arbuthnott d. Daniela Morales (USD) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
(3) Higuchi d. Marie Van Aelst (Arizona) 6-3, 6-4
(4) Shin d. Taylor Johnson (UCLA) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
Choy d. #114 Anna Vrbenska (Ole Miss) 6-3, 6-2
Quarterfinal results
(3) Higuchi d. #86 Emma Wilson (Arizona) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4
(4) Shin d. Choy 6-4, 7-5
(2) Arbuthnott d. Kati Kukaras (USD) 7-6, 6-0
Doubles
Choy/Shin lost to Garcia/Kukaras (USD) 7-5 in Round of 16
Arbuthnott/Gordon d. Chow/Tyrina (USD) 6-3 in QF
Arbuthnott/Gordon d. Van Aelst/Wesbrooks (Arizona) 7-6 in SF
Quick thoughts:
I'm encouraged by Choy's progress and performance that she could not only knock off a ranked opponent with ease (Vrbenska played #4 for Ole Miss last year, and will likely be the Rebels' #3 this year, and recall that Ole Miss is currently #12 in the country and finished last year ranked #8, so she's a player), but also gave Janice Shin, who held down our #5 spot with aplomb last year as a freshman, everything she could handle.
Higuchi's growth is also encouraging; beating Van Aelst (Arizona's #5 last year) doesn't move the needle, because she ought to be beating folks like that. But Emma Wilson is ranked in the top 100 for a reason. She was Fresno State's #1 player before transferring, and will probably be Arizona's #1 this year. Take that with a grain of salt, as Arizona was dreadful last year and doesn't look to be much better this year (the Wildcats went 0-10 in conference and lost 2 of its top 3 to graduation and the third as a transfer to LSU). But it's still a good win.
I'm not going to lose any sleep over Gordon taking an upset loss. Individual tournament tennis is a different animal from team play, and this is the same Michaela Gordon who knocked off some of the top players in the country on her road to winning the USTA Blizzard Wild Card Challenge a few weeks ago. She ran into a freshman who clearly was playing great tennis, and who was a 5-star recruit herself. It happens. (Colling, fyi, probably should have been tabbed as a blue chip, given that she was a top 15 recruit by the time her senior year finished, but she was ranked in the 30s as a recruit when she signed her NLI with USD, which itself was a brobdingnagian jump from the year before, when she wasn't ranked in the top 100 of recruits. She's a player who has improved a lot each of the past few years, so San Diego looks to have gotten a good one there.)
But the better test comes this weekend in Las Vegas. The rescheduling of the NCTC should mean that we see a lot of full rosters at the Freeman, which will mean a lot of individual All-Americans in the field. Taking the preseason rankings as a guide, and just looking at the Top 30 players, the #1, #2, #4, #10, #13, #15, #19, #21, #24, and #27 players could all be there. A great opportunity to shake off rust and to pick up some wins that will really boost some of our players' rankings.