[ColoradoTree]

ColoradoTree - real talk here. It’s the beginning of the season. Where on the ladder would you place Yu? Would it have been preposterous to place her at No. 4, and move everyone else down? 

Also, do you think Blake’s body of work justified her at No. 1 this year? I know at the beginning of the year everyone was scratching their heads at Blake being above Ma and Yepifanova.

I mean, I was super skeptical about Blake playing above Ma and Yepifanova this year, but at a certain point, her results warranted her being there. So I'm not super mad about that. She's been playing so well. She's sort of earned her role there over the course of the season. You can justify it based on results, for sure. You could also justify Ma at 1 and Blake at 2, but I'm not ultimately all that mad about this. And now that I've calmed down some, I didn't really expect Blake to pull off a win today against Vidmanova. You should never really be in the position of expecting a win at 1, you know? It's best on best, and if you're counting on Court 1, that's a scary place to be. 

That's where our depth let us down massively today. Our depth was insane on paper and should've been our strength like it has been in the past. And to your point about Yu's place in the lineup, maybe we'd be in a different place if the 4-6 spots looked different. But it's also really hard to say based on how they looked at the time that Yu should have been playing higher than anyone else. She'd had a decently long stretch of disappointing results coming in, whereas Hui came in blazing hot, so it's entirely reasonable to initially slot Hui above Yu, and Hui didn't really do anything to lose her spot. Blokhina has been a relatively weak and streaky #4, and one of my hopes for next season is that we see a fitter, more consistent Blokhina become a much more reliable result. 

Lele put a lot of faith in Valencia Xu in keeping her in the lineup this year when I didn't think it was warranted. And maybe some of that was having heard from Yu that she was gone no matter what. I don't know if playing every day at #6 would have been enough for Yu, but maybe it would have been. As the season went on, if I were head coach, I would've made the switch and made Yu the 6. But like we've said, perhaps Lele knew that wouldn't have mattered in her decision to transfer, so she gave the playing time to the person she hoped would round into form when it mattered. And Xu clearly didn't. 

So, to answer your question, I don't think I would've put Yu at 4 because I don't think she earned the #4 line at that point in the season. If she'd come in as hot as Hui did, then sure, maybe. But I don't think Lele was wrong to put Blokhina above that group of Xu-Hui-Yu, and I don't think Lele was wrong to put Hui above Yu. I do think Xu's performance in matches showed us that Lele was wrong to put Xu above Yu. 

Ultimately, we had a lineup that was national championship-caliber. And that lineup didn't deliver when it mattered.

[ColoradoTree]

ColoradoTree - real talk here. It’s the beginning of the season. Where on the ladder would you place Yu? Would it have been preposterous to place her at No. 4, and move everyone else down? 

Also, do you think Blake’s body of work justified her at No. 1 this year? I know at the beginning of the year everyone was scratching their heads at Blake being above Ma and Yepifanova.

I mean, I was super skeptical about Blake playing above Ma and Yepifanova this year, but at a certain point, her results warranted her being there. So I'm not super mad about that. She's been playing so well. She's sort of earned her role there over the course of the season. You can justify it based on results, for sure. You could also justify Ma at 1 and Blake at 2, but I'm not ultimately all that mad about this. And now that I've calmed down some, I didn't really expect Blake to pull off a win today against Vidmanova. You should never really be in the position of expecting a win at 1, you know? It's best on best, and if you're counting on Court 1, that's a scary place to be. 

That's where our depth let us down massively today. Our depth was insane on paper and should've been our strength like it has been in the past. And to your point about Yu's place in the lineup, maybe we'd be in a different place if the 4-6 spots looked different. But it's also really hard to say based on how they looked at the time that Yu should have been playing higher than anyone else. She'd had a decently long stretch of disappointing results coming in, whereas Hui came in blazing hot, so it's entirely reasonable to initially slot Hui above Yu, and Hui didn't really do anything to lose her spot. Blokhina has been a relatively weak and streaky #4, and one of my hopes for next season is that we see a fitter, more consistent Blokhina become a much more reliable result. 

Lele put a lot of faith in Valencia Xu in keeping her in the lineup this year when I didn't think it was warranted. And maybe some of that was having heard from Yu that she was gone no matter what. I don't know if playing every day at #6 would have been enough for Yu, but maybe it would have been. As the season went on, if I were head coach, I would've made the switch and made Yu the 6. But like we've said, perhaps Lele knew that wouldn't have mattered in her decision to transfer, so she gave the playing time to the person she hoped would round into form when it mattered. And Xu clearly didn't. 

So, to answer your question, I don't think I would've put Yu at 4 because I don't think she earned the #4 line at that point in the season. If she'd come in as hot as Hui did, then sure, maybe. But I don't think Lele was wrong to put Blokhina above that group of Xu-Hui-Yu, and I don't think Lele was wrong to put Hui above Yu. I do think Xu's performance in matches showed us that Lele was wrong to put Xu above Yu. 

Ultimately, we had a lineup that was national championship-caliber. And that lineup didn't deliver when it mattered.