01-18-2024, 10:26 AM
Going through the San Diego-A&M match from this weekend makes for an interesting comparison.
* In doubles, USD won handily on Courts 2 and 3, while A&M's top team was leading when the match was clinched.
* USD then quickly got to a 3-0 lead with easy wins from Mack over Khirin on Court 2 and Goldsmith over Mireles on Court 4.
* BruuSyversen then clinched it in a lopsided three-setter (6-0 in the third) over Pittman on Court 6.
* They played things out, and De Las Heras beat Khirin in 3 sets on Court 1 for USD's fifth point, while A&M got three-set wins from Perez at 3 and Smetannikov at 5 to get on the board.
* Of note, A&M didn't play Mary Stoiana, ranked #1 in the country, in singles against USD, so everyone else slid up a line. Perhaps it was because she was sore in doubles and they didn't want to push it. But if it was an intentional omission because they wanted to give someone else a chance at the bottom of the lineup, it was an all-time backfire. Because Stoiana was healthy enough to play the following day against Stanford, when she smoked Blake 6-0, 6-3. USD isn't going to challenge for a national title, but they're a dangerous team, and they're too good to be fiddling around with your lineup.
* A couple of quirky examples of how tennis can change depending on the day: (1) Blake beat USD's De Las Heras (albeit narrowly), who in turn beat #31 Khirin of A&M, who beat Ma in three sets. (2) Ma crushed #89 Mack of USD, who crushed #26 Kupres of A&M, who beat Yepifanova in a third-set tiebreaker.
Anyway, A&M is probably fuming about how their season opener went, and they'll come back with a vengeance. That's a great, deep team.
Meanwhile, Stanford has a home match today against UC Davis at 3:00pm. The Aggies are 0-2 after dropping road matches to ASU (where they lost a close doubles point but got crushed in singles, only being competitive on Court 5 with Olive Maunupau forcing a third set) and GCU (where doubles was again competitive but singles wasn't), both by 7-0 scores. This one really shouldn't be competitive, so perhaps we'll see some lineup adjustments.
* In doubles, USD won handily on Courts 2 and 3, while A&M's top team was leading when the match was clinched.
* USD then quickly got to a 3-0 lead with easy wins from Mack over Khirin on Court 2 and Goldsmith over Mireles on Court 4.
* BruuSyversen then clinched it in a lopsided three-setter (6-0 in the third) over Pittman on Court 6.
* They played things out, and De Las Heras beat Khirin in 3 sets on Court 1 for USD's fifth point, while A&M got three-set wins from Perez at 3 and Smetannikov at 5 to get on the board.
* Of note, A&M didn't play Mary Stoiana, ranked #1 in the country, in singles against USD, so everyone else slid up a line. Perhaps it was because she was sore in doubles and they didn't want to push it. But if it was an intentional omission because they wanted to give someone else a chance at the bottom of the lineup, it was an all-time backfire. Because Stoiana was healthy enough to play the following day against Stanford, when she smoked Blake 6-0, 6-3. USD isn't going to challenge for a national title, but they're a dangerous team, and they're too good to be fiddling around with your lineup.
* A couple of quirky examples of how tennis can change depending on the day: (1) Blake beat USD's De Las Heras (albeit narrowly), who in turn beat #31 Khirin of A&M, who beat Ma in three sets. (2) Ma crushed #89 Mack of USD, who crushed #26 Kupres of A&M, who beat Yepifanova in a third-set tiebreaker.
Anyway, A&M is probably fuming about how their season opener went, and they'll come back with a vengeance. That's a great, deep team.
Meanwhile, Stanford has a home match today against UC Davis at 3:00pm. The Aggies are 0-2 after dropping road matches to ASU (where they lost a close doubles point but got crushed in singles, only being competitive on Court 5 with Olive Maunupau forcing a third set) and GCU (where doubles was again competitive but singles wasn't), both by 7-0 scores. This one really shouldn't be competitive, so perhaps we'll see some lineup adjustments.