[ColoradoTree]

Eh, I doubt she'll make a move anytime soon. We're going to have to lose a match because of it first. 

And as for why we're not doing great in doubles, it's probably the same reason we've underperformed our talent level in doubles for the last several years. It can't just be an accident at this point--without having watched Stanford's practices, I assume we deemphasize doubles to the point that our players don't really improve much. But I have to believe it's something systemic.

FYI, we beat Arizona 7-0, which isn't by itself terribly shocking. We should beat Arizona by that margin. But here's how it happened:

* It was our usual doubles lineup. Ma/Yepifanova lost 6-3 at 1, Hui/Xu won 6-3 at 3, and Blake/Blokhina provided the clincher on 2 with a 7-5 win, so a pretty tight doubles point.
* Yepifanova didn't play singles--not sure as to the reason, could've just been rest--but Houghton slid into the #6 slot rather than Yu. Not sure whether Yu is also dealing with something, but that's a change from the last time they slid into the lineup.
* Ma was first off court with a 6-2, 6-2 win on 2. Blokhina followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win of her own on 3. And Houghton clinched with a 7-5, 6-2 win on Court 6. 
* They played it out, and then we got wins from Xu on 5 (6-0, 7-6), Blake (7-6, 6-0), and finally Hui, who needed a match tiebreaker to do it on 4 (4-6, 6-4, 10-7). 
* Same number of games won and lost for Xu and Blake, but man alive, they tell different stories. I would much rather have a player start slowly and struggle a bit before overcoming their opponent and establishing dominance than racing to an easy first set win and then struggling to finish. 
* Frustrating for Hui to drop a set there, but without having watched, it's hard to say why it happened. Given how well Hui played the day before, perhaps she was just a little tired. 

Now it's a couple weeks between matches for Stanford, as we don't play again until we host Colorado and Utah on March 23 and 24, respectively, with both matches set for noon. The ASU win should temporarily bolster our ranking average, but we'll likely dip somewhat in the coming weeks because we don't have potentially valuable matches until the end of the month, and then we get three in a row, with UCLA (Mar. 29), USC (Mar. 30), and Pepperdine (Apr. 5). I'll be out of pocket for the next four matches (in the older sense, meaning unavailable, rather than the way the kids these days are using it), so do please carry on without me!

[ColoradoTree]

Eh, I doubt she'll make a move anytime soon. We're going to have to lose a match because of it first. 

And as for why we're not doing great in doubles, it's probably the same reason we've underperformed our talent level in doubles for the last several years. It can't just be an accident at this point--without having watched Stanford's practices, I assume we deemphasize doubles to the point that our players don't really improve much. But I have to believe it's something systemic.

FYI, we beat Arizona 7-0, which isn't by itself terribly shocking. We should beat Arizona by that margin. But here's how it happened:

* It was our usual doubles lineup. Ma/Yepifanova lost 6-3 at 1, Hui/Xu won 6-3 at 3, and Blake/Blokhina provided the clincher on 2 with a 7-5 win, so a pretty tight doubles point.
* Yepifanova didn't play singles--not sure as to the reason, could've just been rest--but Houghton slid into the #6 slot rather than Yu. Not sure whether Yu is also dealing with something, but that's a change from the last time they slid into the lineup.
* Ma was first off court with a 6-2, 6-2 win on 2. Blokhina followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win of her own on 3. And Houghton clinched with a 7-5, 6-2 win on Court 6. 
* They played it out, and then we got wins from Xu on 5 (6-0, 7-6), Blake (7-6, 6-0), and finally Hui, who needed a match tiebreaker to do it on 4 (4-6, 6-4, 10-7). 
* Same number of games won and lost for Xu and Blake, but man alive, they tell different stories. I would much rather have a player start slowly and struggle a bit before overcoming their opponent and establishing dominance than racing to an easy first set win and then struggling to finish. 
* Frustrating for Hui to drop a set there, but without having watched, it's hard to say why it happened. Given how well Hui played the day before, perhaps she was just a little tired. 

Now it's a couple weeks between matches for Stanford, as we don't play again until we host Colorado and Utah on March 23 and 24, respectively, with both matches set for noon. The ASU win should temporarily bolster our ranking average, but we'll likely dip somewhat in the coming weeks because we don't have potentially valuable matches until the end of the month, and then we get three in a row, with UCLA (Mar. 29), USC (Mar. 30), and Pepperdine (Apr. 5). I'll be out of pocket for the next four matches (in the older sense, meaning unavailable, rather than the way the kids these days are using it), so do please carry on without me!