[ColoradoTree]

FYI, the schedule is out, and as we transition to the ACC, we need to make a separate adjustment, and that's having the individual NCAA championships at the end of the fall season rather than the spring season. 

* Sept. 21-29: ITA All-American Championships (Cary, NC)
* Sept. 27-29: Cal Fall Invitational
* Oct. 11-15: ITA Northwest Regional Championships (in Berkeley)
* Nov. 7-10: ITA Conference Masters (San Diego)
* Nov. 7-10: ITA Sectional Championships (Los Angeles, at USC)
* Nov. 19-24: NCAA Individual Championships

Another change is that for the first time in forever, we're not hosting the Northwest Regionals. I assume that's down to the Taube renovations, so that makes sense. Hopefully that tournament returns to its rightful home next year. 

But all of this seems to be a funneling system toward the individual championships at the end of November, except for the Cal Fall Invitational, which will likely be where players further down our lineup get some fall matches. 

First comes ITA All-Americans, where ten players will qualify for the NCAA singles championship (the eight quarterfinalists and two consolation finalists), and four doubles teams (the main draw semifinalists) will qualify for the NCAA doubles championship.

Then at Northwest Regionals, the two singles finalists get tickets to NCAAs and so does the doubles champion. With 13 regions, that's another 26 entries to the singles tournament. 

Then comes the Conference Masters, where each D-I conference designates one singles player and one doubles team to participate, so that should be 28 AQ conferences plus a few wild cards, presumably of the highest-ranked players who haven't yet qualified for NCAAs. The conference can choose to use a tournament, but I haven't seen one scheduled, so I'm assuming they'll just nominate the highest-ranked player who is yet to qualify. The semifinalists of this tournament will go to NCAAs, while in doubles, the top 3 teams will go to NCAAs.

If you haven't qualified yet, your last chance is one of the four Sectional Tournaments, which will send the final 24 players to the singles championship (6 from each section) and 12 doubles teams (3 from each section) to NCAAs. The singles semifinalists make it plus two "quarterfinal playoff winners," so presumably they take the QF losers and pit them against each other and the the two winners of those matches get the last tickets. Ours is hosted by USC. 

But let's say Connie Ma does well enough to punch her ticket at All-Americans--what does she do the rest of the fall? My hope would be that various invitationals get added, or at least our players go and participate in lower-level professional tournaments.

---

We'll get a separate Spring Season thread going on in a few months if it seems necessary, but for the time being, here's our spring schedule (with season-ending rankings from last year):

Jan. 16: vs. UC Davis
Jan. 24: vs. #51 Memphis (ITA Kickoff Weekend)
Jan. 25: vs. either #44 Ole Miss or #49 Utah
Feb. 7-11: ITA Indoor Nationals
Feb. 22: vs. #9 UCLA
Feb. 28: vs. #52 UCSB
Mar. 7: vs. #62 Syracuse
Mar. 9: vs. Boston College
Mar. 14: vs. #34 SMU
Mar. 15: vs. #10 Cal
Mar. 21: at Virginia Tech
Mar. 23: at #8 Virginia
Mar. 28: at #18 Miami
Mar. 30: at #22 Florida State
Apr. 4: vs. #7 UNC
Apr. 5: vs. #23 Duke
Apr. 11: at #43 Wake Forest
Apr. 13: at #16 N.C. State
Apr. 15-20: ACC Championships (Cary, NC)
May 15-18: NCAA Team Championships

So, our annual non-conference matches with Texas and Pepperdine fall by the wayside, as our increased ACC load means fewer dates we can fit in non-conference opponents. We keep our UCLA match as a non-conference tilt, but no USC on the schedule. (Of note, the ACC teams not on our schedule are #25 Georgia Tech, #32 Notre Dame, #56 Clemson, and unranked Louisville.) There is potentially room that weekend of Feb. 22-23 for another home match, and we've also got just the one match the following weekend when we play UCSB on the Friday. But it'll be a tougher schedule on average, especially with another couple of good matches in the ACC tournament and at Indoor Nationals. Plenty of opportunities to get ten valuable wins for the rankings, that's for sure.

I bet Eleana Yu has April 5 circled. I bet we do, too.

[ColoradoTree]

FYI, the schedule is out, and as we transition to the ACC, we need to make a separate adjustment, and that's having the individual NCAA championships at the end of the fall season rather than the spring season. 

* Sept. 21-29: ITA All-American Championships (Cary, NC)
* Sept. 27-29: Cal Fall Invitational
* Oct. 11-15: ITA Northwest Regional Championships (in Berkeley)
* Nov. 7-10: ITA Conference Masters (San Diego)
* Nov. 7-10: ITA Sectional Championships (Los Angeles, at USC)
* Nov. 19-24: NCAA Individual Championships

Another change is that for the first time in forever, we're not hosting the Northwest Regionals. I assume that's down to the Taube renovations, so that makes sense. Hopefully that tournament returns to its rightful home next year. 

But all of this seems to be a funneling system toward the individual championships at the end of November, except for the Cal Fall Invitational, which will likely be where players further down our lineup get some fall matches. 

First comes ITA All-Americans, where ten players will qualify for the NCAA singles championship (the eight quarterfinalists and two consolation finalists), and four doubles teams (the main draw semifinalists) will qualify for the NCAA doubles championship.

Then at Northwest Regionals, the two singles finalists get tickets to NCAAs and so does the doubles champion. With 13 regions, that's another 26 entries to the singles tournament. 

Then comes the Conference Masters, where each D-I conference designates one singles player and one doubles team to participate, so that should be 28 AQ conferences plus a few wild cards, presumably of the highest-ranked players who haven't yet qualified for NCAAs. The conference can choose to use a tournament, but I haven't seen one scheduled, so I'm assuming they'll just nominate the highest-ranked player who is yet to qualify. The semifinalists of this tournament will go to NCAAs, while in doubles, the top 3 teams will go to NCAAs.

If you haven't qualified yet, your last chance is one of the four Sectional Tournaments, which will send the final 24 players to the singles championship (6 from each section) and 12 doubles teams (3 from each section) to NCAAs. The singles semifinalists make it plus two "quarterfinal playoff winners," so presumably they take the QF losers and pit them against each other and the the two winners of those matches get the last tickets. Ours is hosted by USC. 

But let's say Connie Ma does well enough to punch her ticket at All-Americans--what does she do the rest of the fall? My hope would be that various invitationals get added, or at least our players go and participate in lower-level professional tournaments.

---

We'll get a separate Spring Season thread going on in a few months if it seems necessary, but for the time being, here's our spring schedule (with season-ending rankings from last year):

Jan. 16: vs. UC Davis
Jan. 24: vs. #51 Memphis (ITA Kickoff Weekend)
Jan. 25: vs. either #44 Ole Miss or #49 Utah
Feb. 7-11: ITA Indoor Nationals
Feb. 22: vs. #9 UCLA
Feb. 28: vs. #52 UCSB
Mar. 7: vs. #62 Syracuse
Mar. 9: vs. Boston College
Mar. 14: vs. #34 SMU
Mar. 15: vs. #10 Cal
Mar. 21: at Virginia Tech
Mar. 23: at #8 Virginia
Mar. 28: at #18 Miami
Mar. 30: at #22 Florida State
Apr. 4: vs. #7 UNC
Apr. 5: vs. #23 Duke
Apr. 11: at #43 Wake Forest
Apr. 13: at #16 N.C. State
Apr. 15-20: ACC Championships (Cary, NC)
May 15-18: NCAA Team Championships

So, our annual non-conference matches with Texas and Pepperdine fall by the wayside, as our increased ACC load means fewer dates we can fit in non-conference opponents. We keep our UCLA match as a non-conference tilt, but no USC on the schedule. (Of note, the ACC teams not on our schedule are #25 Georgia Tech, #32 Notre Dame, #56 Clemson, and unranked Louisville.) There is potentially room that weekend of Feb. 22-23 for another home match, and we've also got just the one match the following weekend when we play UCSB on the Friday. But it'll be a tougher schedule on average, especially with another couple of good matches in the ACC tournament and at Indoor Nationals. Plenty of opportunities to get ten valuable wins for the rankings, that's for sure.

I bet Eleana Yu has April 5 circled. I bet we do, too.