I must admit my US college tennis knowledge is very limited, but I get the impression that Emily maybe did OK but not as smoothly as maybe hoped in her first year and was kept in a fairly low berth, albeit in a very strong team. Though I am sure someone can correct that impression if necessary.
And not really come back too strongly to the European ITFs.
Needless to say, Monica Robinson is another US college ringer, who played number 1 at Notre Dame and won several titles.
Re Emily, it seems to me she was about 600 in the world last summer, from having played just a few tournaments, and is about 600 in the world this year, playing only a few tournaments. Certainly her year hasn't been a breakthrough one in tennis terms but I'm not sure that was every likely.
Disappointing but Robinson ended the year at 98 in the Div I college rankings to Emily's 125 (out of 125, but that seems to be the limit on the number they post, so presumably you have to do something worthwhile to get into the top 125 in the first place!) and while I don't know how the college rankings work, you might expect them to be a better reflection of the relative strengths of college players than the WTA rankings when they've both been concentrating on college tennis for the last 10-12 months.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
I don't know playing no 5 Emily only played about 4 ranked players all year but hardly lost. It wasn't until the NCAA tournament that she got some decent opponent who would affect her rank and she squeezed in at 125. She was voted best no 5, playing no 1 at ND is going to allow you to lose quite often against better players and obtain a decent rank. That said playing no 1 would be a big step up for Emily one would expect her to be beaten by the ND no 1. I hope to see her playing 3 or 4 next year and continuing to win depends a bit on how the no2 seed works out and how good one of the freshman is. The no 1 position is pretty sowed up,