US College Signings 2017 (and general college tennis chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

RE: US College Signings 2017 (and general college tennis chat)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

The steaming yesterday was very poor. The matches indoors are staggered on 4 courts, there was no streaming on court 1 so all you could see was one end of Emily's game when looking at the court 2 match or an empty court when it had finished the 6th seed match you could watch but that was a set behind and not likely to be the clincher. Hopefully they will do a better job tonight!

Spectator · All-time great

That's a very good win in doubles for Ms A.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I agree Emily and Taylor Davidson are a pretty strong team, but I think the doubles seeding is a little unreliable, it's only 1 set. The NCAA doubles championship will be a bit more revealing. Others will understand better than me how team qualify but I think doubles teams get invited as opposed to being totally ranking based, of course the tournament is also a bit of a lottery because of the seedings, potentially lots of high quality floaters.

I see the weather is bad in Georgia pushing all the SF's in doors and Stanford v Ohio has been moved to Atlanta, maybe a typo I am sure they mean Atlantis!!! (Georgia Tech)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

I put those eligible for the individual NCAAs up on 4 May. The selection criteria (for singles and dubs) is the highest ranked player or pair in a conference (conferences without ranked players are missed out). Unfilled places in the draw are filled going down the rankings pulling those who did not get selected on the first criteria.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Well Stanford No 7 face Florida No1 in the final despite loosing the doubles point, Emily's doubles match abandoned tied at 4-4, same old story at 5 and 6 where Emily and Emma cleaned up, Emily first off both winning in straight sets. Stanford got a dose of bakery products at No1 but managed to dig out 2 3 set wins to take the tie 4-3. Senior Taylor Davidson now having upped her game in consecutive matches winning critical games at no3. Should be a great match tonight/tomorrow not a bad start to Emily's college career hopefully Stanford will be able to lift the same bar they lifted last season!

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Final 4 matches

#1 Florida bt #3 Vanderbilt 4-2

5. Brooke Austin (CH=424) (Florida) bt Georgina Sellyn (Vanderbilt) 6-2, 6-3

Dubs

#11 Anna Danilina / Ingrid Neel (Florida) bt #1 Emily Smith / Astra Sharma (Vanderbilt) 6-1

#6 Stanford bt #2 Ohio State 4-3

5. Emily Arbuthnott (Stanford) bt #112 Sandy Niehaus (Ohio St) 6-4, 6-3

Dubs

#18 Francesca Di Lorenzo / Miho Kowase (Ohio St) v #39 Emily Arbuthnott / Taylor Davidson (Stanford) 4-4 susp

Stanford's final against Florida is tonight at 10pm (UK). I'm not certain whether there will be streaming on the Georgia site as it is being run as a TV program by ESPN, but we may be lucky. Emily may also have a different dubs partner. Stanford's press release says Taylor Davidson required medical treatment after the tie due to exhaustion and cramps and they won't know if she will be cleared to play until later today.

steven · Tennis legend

In the women's final, Florida won the doubles point 2-0 with Emily's match (at least I think it was hers, not certain)

In the singles:

6. Higuchi (St) got double bagelled by Keegan (FL) to put Florida 2-0 up

1. Doyle (St) lost to Wool**** (FL) 1 & 3 to put Florida 3-0 up

Stanford now need to win all the other matches but two of the three matches where they won the 1st set have now gone to deciders:

2. Lord (St) is a set up v Kuhlman (FL) 6-4 5-4

3. Lee (St) is a 1 set all v Neel (FL) 7-5 3?-6?

4. Lampl (St) is 1 set all v Danilina (FL) 6-4 1-6

5. Emily (St) is a set down v Austin (FL) 2-6 4-5

steven · Tennis legend

Emily wins 3 games in a row from 4-5 to take the 2nd set! - 2-6 7-5

edit: Colette Lewis reports that Emily saved a championship point

So at around 22.30 EDT / 03.30 BST:

2. Lord (St) leads Kuhlman (FL) 6-4 6-5 serving for the match

3. Lee (St) is in a 3rd set v Neel (FL) 7-5 3?-6? 0-3 (MTO)

4. Lampl (St) is in a 3rd set v Danilina (FL) 6-4 1-6 2-2

5. Emily (St) is in a 3rd set v Austin (FL) 2-6 7-5 1-0

-----

22.42

2. Lord (St) beats Kuhlman (FL) 4 & 5 - Florida lead 3-1

3. Lee (St) is in a 3rd set v Neel (FL) 7-5 3?-6? 2-4

4. Lampl (St) is in a 3rd set v Danilina (FL) 6-4 1-6 4-4

5. Emily (St) is in a 3rd set v Austin (FL) 2-6 7-5 3-2 (a break up, I think - it was 3-1 after the previous game, anyway)

steven · Tennis legend

I fear Lee (2-5 in the 3rd now) may go down before Emily or Lampl get the chance to post another point for Stanford.

steven · Tennis legend

22.47

3. Neel (FL) defeats Lee (*) (St) 5-7 6-3 6-2 - Florida win 4-1 and Emily's match at 5 is left hanging (with Emily leading at the last update), as is the match at 4, where Lampl was 4-5 down in the 3rd at the last update.

(*) oops, Davidson - her name is Lee Davidson and they kept referring to her Twitter handle @taylor_lee44, so I assumed she must be called Taylor Lee!

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 24th of May 2017 03:01:03 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Steven thanks for the reporting very hard to find anything unless you have ESPNU (which I do but I am enforcing a domestic WiFi blackout ... to do with kids and homework). Always just plain Taylor Davidson on the Stanford website, who has been spectacular over the run in to the final. After yesterday's heroics I think she just ran out of juice. Emma Higuchi got double bageled (and that is unheard of) at No 6 where she is almost unbeaten and one of the teams bankers, that after loosing the doubles point was probably the mortal wound although it took time to bleed out. Despite loosing Emily was still in a good place up in the final set.

Shame they couldn't quite go the whole way but will comeback stronger next year with the addition of Michela Gordon a top 20 ITF junior. They are genuine student athletes, no grade fudging and it's top top grades to get admitted. This makes the very top end of the order hard to recruit to and at the very highest level that has been their Achilles heel something you can't quite hide against the depth Florida have.

Good to see Melissa Lord win again she could be a top 10 player next year, last time out Emily played Kulman who was up at the no 2 slot, she did not finish in a team loss but competitive and here was leading against Brooke Austin who had dropped down from 4 to 5.

Emily's S and A will be back on Monday for the doubles with fighting chances of going deep; Sabrina Federici is also representing Texas Tech. A first round win will see Emily A and Taylor rematch with the Florida no 1 pair and a chance to avenge their 6-2 loss in the final.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Wednesday 24th of May 2017 04:48:48 AM

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Again, thanks Stephen for the commentary. Is this the first college match you have followed?

#1 Florida bt #6 Stanford 4-1

5. Emily Arbuthnott (Stanford) led Brooke Austin (CH=424) (Florida) 2-6, 7-5, 4-2 susp

Dubs

1. #11 Anna Danilina / Ingrid Neel (Florida) bt #39 Emily Arbuthnott / Taylor Davidson 6-2

At the end of the event, the NCAA announce their All-Tournament Team (their dream team line-up, based on performances in a particular slot, from all participants). Emily was named as the player at #5 singles.

The men singles get underway in the individual year end championships. These again are at Georgia and I believe are streamed.

Julian Cash plays at 8.30pm (UK)

Jack Findel-Hawkins plays at 2pm (UK)

Cameron Norrie, as reported by Oakie earlier, has turned down his slot as #1 seed in this event and finished college in order to start his professional career. Although on the alternates list, Jathan Malik did not manage to get into the draw.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Individual Championships

R64

#69 Jack Findel-Hawkins (North Florida) bt #15 Juan Benitez (Baylor) 7-6(4), 6-4

steven · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
Is this the first college match you have followed?

The first I've followed as closely as that.

In fact, VCU's tennis facility is only just over a mile from where I'm living at the moment, so I nearly managed to see some college tennis properly live last month. They don't play at home that often and they very rarely seem to play teams with Brits but the women's team was due to play the University of Oklahoma (who have one Brit on their 'roster' and another as assistant coach) at home a few weeks ago, so I was intending to go to that, but unfortunately they moved it to Norfolk VA at the last moment.