[ColoradoTree]

(CT) " when Higuchi struggles, it tends to be against taller players who are big hitters."

spot-on: her opponent was a 6'3" freshman from Serbia. The Texas coach joked afterward that she beat a Stanford player who loses about once a decade.

If Granic plays against us at Taube, that might otherwise bump the 6'3" player off the lineup, but I'm guessing the Texas coach will figure his chances for a win would be better matching the Serbian up against Higuchi again.

Right? If Granic is healthy, I think he'd want her playing against Lampl and pushing other folks down, but it might be a good weekend for someone else to have a "minor ankle injury" that could use a day or two to get better and keep those favorable matchups at 5 and 6. If I'm the Texas head coach, I'd much rather go that route than drop Spasojevic out of the lineup. That sort of gamesmanship is poor form, of course, but stuff that minor doesn't bother me. 

So, due to all the weather, the "three match guarantee" is out the window, and the tournament has ended after two matches for everyone except those in the semifinals. A real bummer for some of those teams, as one more ranked win might be the difference at the end of the year between sneaking into the 7th or 8th seed and getting a home date through the super regionals, or more likely, getting to #15 or #16 and hosting a regional. 

After Stanford and Georgia advanced, here's how the rest of the matches went yesterday:

Main Draw:

(3) Duke d. (6) Pepperdine 4-1 (#11 Mateas of Duke fell to Pepperdine's Lahey (the preseason #4 who is now out of the rankings due to a light fall schedule))
(2) UNC d. (7) UCLA 4-1 (doubles point was decided in UNC's favor by a tiebreaker at #2; from UCLA's perspective, Miller had a nice, tough win at #5, Hart was a game away from a win at #1, and Altick was into a third set at #4, but UNC has a brutal combination of quality depth and top-line players)

Consolation:

#16 Ohio State d. #10 Syracuse 4-2 
#15 South Carolina d. #9 Oklahoma State 4-1
#12 Northwestern d. #18 LSU 4-3
Washington d. #14 N.C. State 4-3

That's a really nice win for UW. This tournament has had its issues with weather and cancellations, but UW came out of it with a ranked win and a loss to a top 5 team, so that's a nice shot in the arm for the Huskies' ranking. That'll be big come NCAA selection time.

---

It’s the condition outside of tennis courts.  The whole city has been on a halt since February 1.  Road conditions are dangerous.  Lots of icy hills. All schools are closed.  A UW student died on Wednesday from slipping and Wednesday was one of the nicer days.  Flights are being routed to PDX.   The snow has crippled the city as the city is not equipped to deal with this much snow.

I wonder if this will cause the ITA to hold Indoor Nationals in even colder, snowier parts of the country more often in the future. The University of Wisconsin has done a good job hosting in the past, and the University of Minnesota has ten indoor courts (with other high-quality facilities in the Twin Cities that could accommodate other matches).  Nothing against Seattle or the University of Washington--by all accounts, UW does a great job with events like these. But when weather like this is so rare, it doesn't make a ton of sense to have a massive fleet of snowplows on hand, so I get why Seattle tends not to do well with snow. In Minneapolis and Madison, by contrast, you don't have the same issues with hills, and they've developed good mechanisms for dealing with tons of snow on roads or on sidewalks out of necessity. If the goal is to spread the bigger tournaments around the country, then you might as well go someplace where there's a robust infrastructure in place to deal with it.

[ColoradoTree]

(CT) " when Higuchi struggles, it tends to be against taller players who are big hitters."

spot-on: her opponent was a 6'3" freshman from Serbia. The Texas coach joked afterward that she beat a Stanford player who loses about once a decade.

If Granic plays against us at Taube, that might otherwise bump the 6'3" player off the lineup, but I'm guessing the Texas coach will figure his chances for a win would be better matching the Serbian up against Higuchi again.

Right? If Granic is healthy, I think he'd want her playing against Lampl and pushing other folks down, but it might be a good weekend for someone else to have a "minor ankle injury" that could use a day or two to get better and keep those favorable matchups at 5 and 6. If I'm the Texas head coach, I'd much rather go that route than drop Spasojevic out of the lineup. That sort of gamesmanship is poor form, of course, but stuff that minor doesn't bother me. 

So, due to all the weather, the "three match guarantee" is out the window, and the tournament has ended after two matches for everyone except those in the semifinals. A real bummer for some of those teams, as one more ranked win might be the difference at the end of the year between sneaking into the 7th or 8th seed and getting a home date through the super regionals, or more likely, getting to #15 or #16 and hosting a regional. 

After Stanford and Georgia advanced, here's how the rest of the matches went yesterday:

Main Draw:

(3) Duke d. (6) Pepperdine 4-1 (#11 Mateas of Duke fell to Pepperdine's Lahey (the preseason #4 who is now out of the rankings due to a light fall schedule))
(2) UNC d. (7) UCLA 4-1 (doubles point was decided in UNC's favor by a tiebreaker at #2; from UCLA's perspective, Miller had a nice, tough win at #5, Hart was a game away from a win at #1, and Altick was into a third set at #4, but UNC has a brutal combination of quality depth and top-line players)

Consolation:

#16 Ohio State d. #10 Syracuse 4-2 
#15 South Carolina d. #9 Oklahoma State 4-1
#12 Northwestern d. #18 LSU 4-3
Washington d. #14 N.C. State 4-3

That's a really nice win for UW. This tournament has had its issues with weather and cancellations, but UW came out of it with a ranked win and a loss to a top 5 team, so that's a nice shot in the arm for the Huskies' ranking. That'll be big come NCAA selection time.

---

It’s the condition outside of tennis courts.  The whole city has been on a halt since February 1.  Road conditions are dangerous.  Lots of icy hills. All schools are closed.  A UW student died on Wednesday from slipping and Wednesday was one of the nicer days.  Flights are being routed to PDX.   The snow has crippled the city as the city is not equipped to deal with this much snow.

I wonder if this will cause the ITA to hold Indoor Nationals in even colder, snowier parts of the country more often in the future. The University of Wisconsin has done a good job hosting in the past, and the University of Minnesota has ten indoor courts (with other high-quality facilities in the Twin Cities that could accommodate other matches).  Nothing against Seattle or the University of Washington--by all accounts, UW does a great job with events like these. But when weather like this is so rare, it doesn't make a ton of sense to have a massive fleet of snowplows on hand, so I get why Seattle tends not to do well with snow. In Minneapolis and Madison, by contrast, you don't have the same issues with hills, and they've developed good mechanisms for dealing with tons of snow on roads or on sidewalks out of necessity. If the goal is to spread the bigger tournaments around the country, then you might as well go someplace where there's a robust infrastructure in place to deal with it.