[ColoradoTree]

The individual tournament hasn't been a place for great Stanford performances of late--Nicole Gibbs in 2013 stands as our last singles champion, and her 2012 doubles title with Mallory Burdette is our last title there.

Wow. How quickly time passes - I tend to think of Stanford as being perennially in the hunt for individual singles and doubles titles. Weren't we regularly winning those through the late oughts and early 2010s? Were we just so much more dominant during that stretch that it translated even into what you rightly describe as the crapshoot of the postseason individual tournaments?

Our teams back then were constructed differently, too. We had depth then as now, but in recent years, our titles have been on the backs of that depth, winning courts 3-6 and hoping for one from the top three or in doubles. Back then, we had full-on aces. Nicole Gibbs, Amber Liu, Laura Granville--all 2-time NCAA singles champions. And either doubles was more of an emphasis back then or we had some players particularly suited for it, because between 2002 and 2012, we won the doubles title 5 out of 10 times, with three different Burdette sisters taking home a NCAA doubles crown. 

I think Ma is an ace. And I think Yepifanova isn't far off that, and maybe she overtakes Ma over time. (Hard to get that 6-4, 6-1 Northwest Regionals head-to-head win by Ma out of my head, though.)

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FYI, Ma leads Mattel 7-5, 4-3, up a break.

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Ma closes the door with a 7-5, 6-3 win over UCF's Mattel. Eyes turn to Court 5, where Yepifanova is warming up.

[ColoradoTree]

The individual tournament hasn't been a place for great Stanford performances of late--Nicole Gibbs in 2013 stands as our last singles champion, and her 2012 doubles title with Mallory Burdette is our last title there.

Wow. How quickly time passes - I tend to think of Stanford as being perennially in the hunt for individual singles and doubles titles. Weren't we regularly winning those through the late oughts and early 2010s? Were we just so much more dominant during that stretch that it translated even into what you rightly describe as the crapshoot of the postseason individual tournaments?

Our teams back then were constructed differently, too. We had depth then as now, but in recent years, our titles have been on the backs of that depth, winning courts 3-6 and hoping for one from the top three or in doubles. Back then, we had full-on aces. Nicole Gibbs, Amber Liu, Laura Granville--all 2-time NCAA singles champions. And either doubles was more of an emphasis back then or we had some players particularly suited for it, because between 2002 and 2012, we won the doubles title 5 out of 10 times, with three different Burdette sisters taking home a NCAA doubles crown. 

I think Ma is an ace. And I think Yepifanova isn't far off that, and maybe she overtakes Ma over time. (Hard to get that 6-4, 6-1 Northwest Regionals head-to-head win by Ma out of my head, though.)

---

FYI, Ma leads Mattel 7-5, 4-3, up a break.

---

Ma closes the door with a 7-5, 6-3 win over UCF's Mattel. Eyes turn to Court 5, where Yepifanova is warming up.