[ColoradoTree]

Updated Rankings

Updated rankings are out, and the team dropped from #2 to #3, as Michigan went back ahead of us. Neither team did much last weekend, but the ranking algorithm appears to have gone from 5 countable wins to 6, so we're now carrying a less valuable 6th win than they are. We'll get a good chance to improve on that this weekend, as we travel to the desert to play #30 Arizona State on Friday and #41 Arizona on Saturday. FYI, because of the 10% bonus for away wins, beating ASU would get us the points roughly equal to beating the #25 team. 

But the important thing, like I said last week, is thinking about our best ten wins and avoiding losses. The team ranking right now isn't all that important--we just want to stay on track to be hosting a super regional, and the rest of it will fall into place. 

As for individual rankings, here's where we are:

#15 Ma
#26 Blake
#38 Yepifanova
#86 Blokhina
#108 Xu

And in doubles:

#54 Ma/Yepifanova
#60 Blake/Blokhina

Looking ahead to Arizona State

Here's what I wrote last week:

And we'll talk more about this next week, but ASU is legitimately dangerous despite a middling record. They've scheduled hard, with 4-0 losses to both Oklahoma State and Ohio State on their resume already, plus a 4-1 loss to San Diego (that was about to be 4-2 with the final match even in the third, so it could've drawn closer). But those scorelines don't tell the whole story, as the doubles point against Oklahoma State had tiebreakers on all three courts, and ASU either led or was going the distance in the other three courts. So, if doubles goes the other way, that could've easily been a 4-3 match either way. And ASU's 4-0 loss to Ohio State was in Columbus, but they just beat Ohio State 4-1 in Tempe (though the other two singles matches were tight in the third set, so closer than the scoreline indicates). So that match in Tempe next weekend is certainly not one to take lightly. But with 2 matches against Ohio State and 1 each against San Diego, Oklahoma State, and UC Davis, that's 5 matches we can look to for comps on potentially what to expect. 

ASU is 7-4, and they followed up that 4-1 win over Ohio State with a 4-2 loss at Baylor (though that one involved Morlet retiring after losing a second-set tiebreaker that forced a third, so she might not be at 100% for this one). This team is highly variable, and as they've shown so far, they can beat (or push to the brink) very good teams, and they can also lose to middling teams. Here's what the matchups would probably be:

1. #26 Blake vs. #87 Giulia Morlet (Sr., France)
2. #15 Ma vs. Chelsea Fontenel (So., Switzerland)
3. #38 Yepifanova vs. Marianna Argyrokastriti (Sr., Greece)
4. #86 Blokhina vs. #103 Emilija Tverijonaite (Fr., Lithuania)
5. Hui vs. Sara Svetac (Fr., Croatia) or Patricija Spaka (Jr., Latvia)
6. #108 Xu vs. Rachel Hanford (Sr., Canada)

As you can see, ASU is one of those teams that has managed to become a competitive program by recruiting heavily among international students.

Here's ASU's live stats website: https://sidearmstats.com/asu/wten/

[ColoradoTree]

Updated Rankings

Updated rankings are out, and the team dropped from #2 to #3, as Michigan went back ahead of us. Neither team did much last weekend, but the ranking algorithm appears to have gone from 5 countable wins to 6, so we're now carrying a less valuable 6th win than they are. We'll get a good chance to improve on that this weekend, as we travel to the desert to play #30 Arizona State on Friday and #41 Arizona on Saturday. FYI, because of the 10% bonus for away wins, beating ASU would get us the points roughly equal to beating the #25 team. 

But the important thing, like I said last week, is thinking about our best ten wins and avoiding losses. The team ranking right now isn't all that important--we just want to stay on track to be hosting a super regional, and the rest of it will fall into place. 

As for individual rankings, here's where we are:

#15 Ma
#26 Blake
#38 Yepifanova
#86 Blokhina
#108 Xu

And in doubles:

#54 Ma/Yepifanova
#60 Blake/Blokhina

Looking ahead to Arizona State

Here's what I wrote last week:

And we'll talk more about this next week, but ASU is legitimately dangerous despite a middling record. They've scheduled hard, with 4-0 losses to both Oklahoma State and Ohio State on their resume already, plus a 4-1 loss to San Diego (that was about to be 4-2 with the final match even in the third, so it could've drawn closer). But those scorelines don't tell the whole story, as the doubles point against Oklahoma State had tiebreakers on all three courts, and ASU either led or was going the distance in the other three courts. So, if doubles goes the other way, that could've easily been a 4-3 match either way. And ASU's 4-0 loss to Ohio State was in Columbus, but they just beat Ohio State 4-1 in Tempe (though the other two singles matches were tight in the third set, so closer than the scoreline indicates). So that match in Tempe next weekend is certainly not one to take lightly. But with 2 matches against Ohio State and 1 each against San Diego, Oklahoma State, and UC Davis, that's 5 matches we can look to for comps on potentially what to expect. 

ASU is 7-4, and they followed up that 4-1 win over Ohio State with a 4-2 loss at Baylor (though that one involved Morlet retiring after losing a second-set tiebreaker that forced a third, so she might not be at 100% for this one). This team is highly variable, and as they've shown so far, they can beat (or push to the brink) very good teams, and they can also lose to middling teams. Here's what the matchups would probably be:

1. #26 Blake vs. #87 Giulia Morlet (Sr., France)
2. #15 Ma vs. Chelsea Fontenel (So., Switzerland)
3. #38 Yepifanova vs. Marianna Argyrokastriti (Sr., Greece)
4. #86 Blokhina vs. #103 Emilija Tverijonaite (Fr., Lithuania)
5. Hui vs. Sara Svetac (Fr., Croatia) or Patricija Spaka (Jr., Latvia)
6. #108 Xu vs. Rachel Hanford (Sr., Canada)

As you can see, ASU is one of those teams that has managed to become a competitive program by recruiting heavily among international students.

Here's ASU's live stats website: https://sidearmstats.com/asu/wten/