Stanford plays its first road matches of the year this weekend. They play at Utah (6-2) on Friday at 12:30pm and at Colorado (6-2) on Sunday at 9:00am. Neither team has an impressive win so far, and neither team has a ranked singles player or doubles team. That said, both teams have eight matches under their belts compared to our two, and the talent level is certainly above what we saw from Santa Clara and UC Davis, so don't be surprised if some of these matches are closer than they ought to be. In terms of ranked opponents, Utah lost 7-0 to #22 Texas A&M (though Utah at least pushed it to a third set at #1 singles) and 0-4 to #46 Denver (though the remaining 3 matches were close). For their part, the Buffs lost 6-1 to #41 Iowa State (winning a third-set supertiebreak at #2 singles) and 3-4 to #46 Denver (winning 4, 5, and 6 singles).
Stanford so far this season:
2-0, with a pair of 7-0 wins against overmatched in-state opponents, Santa Clara and UC Davis. That's enough to get us back into the rankings at #28, basically a "ok, we'll start thinking about you again, but let us know when you play someone good" ranking. Not a lot to glean from those matches in terms of how the rest of the season will go, but here's a summary of what we (think we might maybe) know after those two matches:
* Gordon is cruising as our unquestioned #1. Lost just one game in two matches and worked quickly.
* Geller has leapfrogged some more experienced players. She played #3 in both matches, and appears to be ahead of not just her very highly touted fellow freshman, India Houghton, but a 5th year player (Higuchi), a senior (Shin), both juniors (Choy and Madurawe), and a sophomore (Mossmer). We don't yet know where she ranks vis-a-vis sophomore Angelica Blake, as Blake hasn't played yet, but Geller looks to be no worse than our #4 singles player--pretty impressive for a Stanford freshman. And she was the first off court in both matches to boot. A quick worker.
* Some rust, but that's to be expected after such a lengthy layoff. Arbuthnott won her first set against UC Davis easily but then couldn't finish and had to win a supertiebreak to take the match. Similar for Choy against Santa Clara. Madurawe won her first set 6-0 against Davis and was cruising in the second before she dropped a few in a row, but at least she fought back to win that set and the match.
* Choy seems to have jumped ahead of Shin, which is a positive development after Shin's struggles last year.
* Emma Higuchi has given this team nothing but steady play and quick wins on Court 6 the past four seasons, but her time in the lineup may have come to an end. Just too much firepower ahead of her in the lineup.
* We have a clear #1 in Gordon, then Arbuthnott/Blake in some order, then Geller and Choy, and then likely Shin at 6. But our depth is such that we have a number of players with a decent claim to the #6 spot--Shin, Higuchi, Houghton, and Madurawe. All four should really see some time this season so we can have a little more flexibility going into the postseason.
* In doubles, it looks like Gordon/Madurawe and Choy/Shin are relatively set pairs, with the other one TBD (if Blake is healthy, you'd expect Arbuthnott/Blake to be that team, given their success last season).
What to expect:
Barring calamity, Stanford will win these matches. The suspense is in the margin and what the individual performances mean going forward. As is often the case, Gordon will have the toughest test, but Stanford is strongly favored in each spot in the lineup. If this were midseason, I'd be disappointed with anything other than 7-0 in each match, but with so little match play to date, we need to make room for some inconsistency. But I'll still predict 7-0 in each one, assuming they play them out.
How to follow along:
Utah live video: https://utahutes.com/sports/2018/2/16/te...aming.aspx
Utah live stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/stat...p?gid=utah
Colorado live stats: https://www.colorado.statbroadcast.com/ (looks like no live video, sadly)
Stanford so far this season:
2-0, with a pair of 7-0 wins against overmatched in-state opponents, Santa Clara and UC Davis. That's enough to get us back into the rankings at #28, basically a "ok, we'll start thinking about you again, but let us know when you play someone good" ranking. Not a lot to glean from those matches in terms of how the rest of the season will go, but here's a summary of what we (think we might maybe) know after those two matches:
* Gordon is cruising as our unquestioned #1. Lost just one game in two matches and worked quickly.
* Geller has leapfrogged some more experienced players. She played #3 in both matches, and appears to be ahead of not just her very highly touted fellow freshman, India Houghton, but a 5th year player (Higuchi), a senior (Shin), both juniors (Choy and Madurawe), and a sophomore (Mossmer). We don't yet know where she ranks vis-a-vis sophomore Angelica Blake, as Blake hasn't played yet, but Geller looks to be no worse than our #4 singles player--pretty impressive for a Stanford freshman. And she was the first off court in both matches to boot. A quick worker.
* Some rust, but that's to be expected after such a lengthy layoff. Arbuthnott won her first set against UC Davis easily but then couldn't finish and had to win a supertiebreak to take the match. Similar for Choy against Santa Clara. Madurawe won her first set 6-0 against Davis and was cruising in the second before she dropped a few in a row, but at least she fought back to win that set and the match.
* Choy seems to have jumped ahead of Shin, which is a positive development after Shin's struggles last year.
* Emma Higuchi has given this team nothing but steady play and quick wins on Court 6 the past four seasons, but her time in the lineup may have come to an end. Just too much firepower ahead of her in the lineup.
* We have a clear #1 in Gordon, then Arbuthnott/Blake in some order, then Geller and Choy, and then likely Shin at 6. But our depth is such that we have a number of players with a decent claim to the #6 spot--Shin, Higuchi, Houghton, and Madurawe. All four should really see some time this season so we can have a little more flexibility going into the postseason.
* In doubles, it looks like Gordon/Madurawe and Choy/Shin are relatively set pairs, with the other one TBD (if Blake is healthy, you'd expect Arbuthnott/Blake to be that team, given their success last season).
What to expect:
Barring calamity, Stanford will win these matches. The suspense is in the margin and what the individual performances mean going forward. As is often the case, Gordon will have the toughest test, but Stanford is strongly favored in each spot in the lineup. If this were midseason, I'd be disappointed with anything other than 7-0 in each match, but with so little match play to date, we need to make room for some inconsistency. But I'll still predict 7-0 in each one, assuming they play them out.
How to follow along:
Utah live video: https://utahutes.com/sports/2018/2/16/te...aming.aspx
Utah live stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/stat...p?gid=utah
Colorado live stats: https://www.colorado.statbroadcast.com/ (looks like no live video, sadly)
