Thanks for the clarification. I've been following women's tennis since Patty Fendick, so although I'm a bit of a "quiet" follower, I'm interested in any and all takes.
I just checked the conference standings, and I'm pretty sure that Stanford will end up seeded 5-8 in the ACC tournament, which means a bye into the third round. So Stanford definitely needs to defeat SMU on Saturday and win the third-round match a week from Thursday. Depending on the opponent for the third-round match, Stanford might also need to defeat one of the top 4 seeds who are currently ranked by ITA at #5 (UNC), #8 (UVA), #14 (NC State), #22 (Duke). NB: Miami (#35) is currently tied with Duke in the standings--they play in the final match of the regular season--so could replace the Blue Devils in the top 4.
That seems like a pretty steep hill for this year's team, but 4-0 vs Cal gives me hope!
I just checked the conference standings, and I'm pretty sure that Stanford will end up seeded 5-8 in the ACC tournament, which means a bye into the third round. So Stanford definitely needs to defeat SMU on Saturday and win the third-round match a week from Thursday. Depending on the opponent for the third-round match, Stanford might also need to defeat one of the top 4 seeds who are currently ranked by ITA at #5 (UNC), #8 (UVA), #14 (NC State), #22 (Duke). NB: Miami (#35) is currently tied with Duke in the standings--they play in the final match of the regular season--so could replace the Blue Devils in the top 4.
That seems like a pretty steep hill for this year's team, but 4-0 vs Cal gives me hope!
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)