03-06-2023, 10:19 AM
I didn't do a separate thread for it, but Pac-12 play kicked off this weekend with Stanford heading to Boulder on Friday and Salt Lake City on Sunday.
The CU match went much as expected, where we managed to win the doubles point (though Choy/Yepifanova managed to lose on Court 2), and then we got straight set wins from everyone except Blokhina on Court 4, who retired down 6-4, 2-0, so presumably something was hindering her throughout the match and then got worse. So, a 6-1 score against CU is a little surprising, but it wasn't like one of our regulars lost at full strength. Oh, and the lineup was back to normal otherwise, with Ma at 1 and Yepifanova at 2. Then at Utah, we dropped the doubles point (which, I mean, come on), though Ma/Xu at least won on Court 3. Choy/Yepifanova isn't working on Court 2. Blokhina skipped singles, which meant Xu and Choy slid up a line and Sun entered the lineup at 6. Ma, Blake, and Choy rolled on Courts 1, 3, and 5, and Yepifanova and Xu had surprisingly close straight set wins on 2 and 4, and Sun actually lost her match, 6-1, 7-5.
So, two wins, but we should be winning these 7-0, not 6-1, or 5-2. I'll give Blokhina a pass for the CU match--clearly something must have been bothering her. But dropping doubles to Utah just isn't okay. And the fact that it was Sun who entered the lineup at 6 rather than Geller or Houghton, is a little shocking. Sun doesn't seem ready for prime time, but this indicates she's ahead of Geller and Houghton in the internal pecking order, which either means they're injured or that they've suffered a shocking drop in form.
You can't just keep dropping doubles and expect to get four singles wins all the time. Yeah, it works a lot, and it's exciting when it does, but it's also the recipe for some 4-3 losses to good teams.
Last match for a while is this Wednesday vs. the USF Dons, and then our players get some study time before finals and then Spring Break--we visit USC and UCLA the weekend of the 26th-28th, which are exactly the kind of road matches we could drop if we keep mailing in the doubles point.
The CU match went much as expected, where we managed to win the doubles point (though Choy/Yepifanova managed to lose on Court 2), and then we got straight set wins from everyone except Blokhina on Court 4, who retired down 6-4, 2-0, so presumably something was hindering her throughout the match and then got worse. So, a 6-1 score against CU is a little surprising, but it wasn't like one of our regulars lost at full strength. Oh, and the lineup was back to normal otherwise, with Ma at 1 and Yepifanova at 2. Then at Utah, we dropped the doubles point (which, I mean, come on), though Ma/Xu at least won on Court 3. Choy/Yepifanova isn't working on Court 2. Blokhina skipped singles, which meant Xu and Choy slid up a line and Sun entered the lineup at 6. Ma, Blake, and Choy rolled on Courts 1, 3, and 5, and Yepifanova and Xu had surprisingly close straight set wins on 2 and 4, and Sun actually lost her match, 6-1, 7-5.
So, two wins, but we should be winning these 7-0, not 6-1, or 5-2. I'll give Blokhina a pass for the CU match--clearly something must have been bothering her. But dropping doubles to Utah just isn't okay. And the fact that it was Sun who entered the lineup at 6 rather than Geller or Houghton, is a little shocking. Sun doesn't seem ready for prime time, but this indicates she's ahead of Geller and Houghton in the internal pecking order, which either means they're injured or that they've suffered a shocking drop in form.
You can't just keep dropping doubles and expect to get four singles wins all the time. Yeah, it works a lot, and it's exciting when it does, but it's also the recipe for some 4-3 losses to good teams.
Last match for a while is this Wednesday vs. the USF Dons, and then our players get some study time before finals and then Spring Break--we visit USC and UCLA the weekend of the 26th-28th, which are exactly the kind of road matches we could drop if we keep mailing in the doubles point.