LordBrownof wrote:

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If Tarvet was top 10 individually last year, he presumably doesn't have much backup?

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San Diego had a very successful season last year with a 23-4 record and almost half of those wins were won 4-0 or better. As a mid-major they will struggle to be ranked much higher than they were last season simply because in their conference they don't have the opportunity to play the higher ranked teams. The wins they get over the other teams in their conference do not give as much weight to their ranking than they would get from winning against the top teams.

Here are some results from over the last week. Many of our women are playing in 'hidden dual' invitationals this weekend ahead of starting team dual play next weekend. Some of our men start dual play today or tomorrow and the rest next weekend. I'll be following and updating on mostly the teams featuring our ranked players this semester as to follow all 192+ British players in Div 1 would be a bit too much!

Dual - Hawaii 1 Florida State 6 (Last Sunday)
1. #22 Jamie Connel (FSU) def. #77 Azuma Visaya (UH) 7-5, 6-3
Jamie's first match at the No 1 position for Florida State. He had lost to the same player in an invitational a couple of days earlier.

Invitational @ Hawaii (Wednesday to Saturday)
Featuring Hawaii, USC (Grace Piper, Immi Haddad), Texas A&M

Mia Kupres (Texas A&M) def. #57 Immi Haddad (Southern California) 6-3, 6-2
#7 Lily Fairclough/Grace Piper (Southern California) def. Mia Kupres/Daria Smetannikov (Texas A&M) 7-6 (7-3)
Emma Charney/Immi Haddad (Southern California) def. Peppi Ramstedt/Sheena Masuda (Hawaii) 6-2

Lucciana Perez (Texas A&M) def. #37 Grace Piper (Southern California) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
Ana Vilcek/Nikola Homolkova (Hawaii) def. Emma Charney/Immi Haddad (Southern California) 6-3

#57 Immi Haddad (Southern California) def. Emma Forgac (Hawaii) 6-4, 6-2
Immi Haddad/Maia Sung (Southern California) def. Joelle Lanz/Emma Forgac (Hawaii) 7-6 (7-3)
#7 Lily Fairclough/Grace Piper (Southern California) def. Peppi Ramstedt/Sheena Masuda (Hawaii) 6-1


Invitational @ Miami (Friday to Sunday)
Featuring Miami (Ogunwale), NC State (J Conway, K Paskauskas, G Paskauskas), Vanderbilt, Oklahoma

Miami v NC State (singles)
Jaquelyn Ogunwale (UM) def. Mia Slama (NCST) 7-5 6-2
#55 Gabia Paskauskas (NCST) def. Vargas (UM) 6-2 6-4
Kristina Paskauskas (NCST) def. #70 Raquel Gonzalez (UM) 2-6 6-1 6-3 (great turnaround from 0-5)
After a slow start for all our women, all turned it around to get victories. Gabia and Kristina both dished out hidden bagels in the 1st set and 2nd set respectively. Miami didn't have Alexa Noel, spring NCAA Champion, and NC State didn't have spring freshman Michaela Laki (WTA CH 466/JCH 9) playing. Jasmine wasn't selected for singles, although got a match later on. I've been eagerly awaiting the start of the season to see the team orders but I'm none the wiser for these two teams after this, especially as they put Kristina on court 1 and Jaquelyn on court 2, which I'm sure is where they won't be in the regular season order.

NC State v Vanderbilt (doubles)
Stammel/Ray (Vanderbilt) def. #60 Conway/K Paskauskas (NC State) 6-0

Extra match
Jasmine Conway (NC State) def. Jayden Jagolinzer (Vanderbilt) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5
This was at the end of the day outside of the scheduled team match ups. Jasmine should have won in straight sets but threw away a 5-2 opening set lead. She seems to have difficulty in closing out sets as in all 3 sets she was up 4-1. It looks as though she is bottom of the singles order at Number 8 for NC State and destined for a year as a doubles only player, which makes me wonder whether transferring to NC State was the right decision.

On Saturday NC State play Vanderbilt in singles then Oklahoma in doubles, Miami play Vanderbilt in doubles then Oklahoma in singles.

Although we don't have any players on Vanderbilt's womens roster this year, they have British interest in Jack Findel-Hawkins, who was promoted from their Asst coach to Associate Head Coach last month.


There were also invitational's at Cal and Florida International that featured Brit heavy teams
The invitational at Cal includes Cal Poly (Amy Leather) and St Mary's (California) (Iman Khan, Olivia Rook, Tiana Fox).
There was no success here though in the known results as Tiana lost her doubles and Iman and Amy lost their singles. Iman played No1 for SMC last year and should do so again this year.
Lan Mi/Tiziana-Marie Schomburg (Cal) def. Tiana Fox/MiaAngelina Ruja (Saint Mary's), 6-3
Jessica Alsola (Cal) def. Iman Khan (Saint Mary's), 6-1, 6-1
Tiziana-Marie Schomburg (Cal) def. Amy Leather (Cal Poly), 6-2, 6-3

The invitational at Florida International includes DePaul (Eleanor Hobbs, Hannah Smith, Eleanor Cochran, Isabella Gibson) and Florida Atlantic (Millie-Mae Matthews)
Eleanor Cochran/Sasha (DPU) Stula Def. Simeva/Baidaulet (FIU), 7-5
Hannah Smith/Eva Goncharov defeated Gomez/Millie -Mae Matthews (FAU) 6-1
Roberta Sechi/Eleanor Nobbs (DPU) claimed a 6-3 victory
Quadre (FIU) def. Hannah Smith (DPU), 6-1, 6-3
Simeva (FIU) def. Isabella Gibson (DPU), 6-4, 6-2
Eleanor Nobbs (DPU) def. Lailaa Bashir (MIZ) 6-0, 6-4
Eleanor Cochran (DPU) def. Sophia McLellan (MIZ), 6-3, 2-6, 6-4


Weather permitting, Saturday sees many of our mens teams, including TCU and Wake Forest, start their spring campaigns. TCU's top 3 of Maxted, PJ and Vives wont be playing this weekend though. Georgia Tech women were supposed to start with 2 home back to back dual matches on Saturday but due to snow in Atlanta covering their courts they have been put back to Monday. Florida women host Florida State and others in another invitational.

There were some encouraging performances on day 2 of the Miami invitational, if not the end results. It does seem that Kristina Paskauskas is playing in the No 1 position for this weekend at least, which is some promotion from having been rarely selected for singles or doubles last year. She played Celia-Belle Mohr (Vanderbilt) who was last year's #6 ranked (and is 9th in the college UTR rankings). Although she lost 2 & 2, the score was not reflective of the match, especially for the first set. Most games in the first set went to the deciding point but unfortunately Kristina lost every deciding point in the first set. A bit more experience of how to play college deciding points will turn some of those points into game wins.

Jaquelyn Ogunwale also played in the No 1 position today against Oklahoma's #14 ranked Garcia Ruiz. She lost 1-6 6-2 3-6. But she played impressively in the 2nd and 3rd sets and the result could have turned out differently if a point penalty for an overruled line call at 30-30 didn't cost her a game in the deciding set.

Gabia Paskauskas (position 4) won 6-2 7-5
Jasmine Conway (position 7) won 7-5 6-3

In day 1 of the Florida invitational,
at position 1 Alicia Dudeney (UF) defeated Millie Bissett (FSU) 4-6 4-0 retired.
at position 2 Talia N-G (UF) won 0-6 6-2 [10-5]
at position 3 Eva Shaw (FSU) lost 6-3 1-6 [5-10]

With Talia, Eva, Kristina, Gabia, Jaquelyn and Isa all early in their college careers, I'm feeling quite optimistic for our college women a couple of years down the line when we could have quite a few highly ranked women. Hopefully at least one of them can match Millie's achievements.


Meanwhile Florida State men have been playing scoring dual matches and won both they played today 4-0.
In the first against Florida Gulf Coast, Jamie Connel at pos 1 won 1 & 4. In the second against Alabama State, at position 2 Jamie was leading 6-3 3-2 when the dual was clinched.

After the gentle introduction last week, this weekend sees more competitive matches.

Matches to look out for this weekend potentially featuring British players

Today
Women: Duquesne @ #8 Virginia
This will be an easy victory for Virginia, but notable because it potentially is Isabelle's debut. She may get a match here as they see how the freshman do in matchplay, but there may only be room for 1 of their 3 freshmen in the regular starting 6.

Friday
Men: #17 Stanford v #2 TCU (@SMU, Dallas)
I'm not expecting any all British matches in singles as my expectation is that JPJ is likely to be playing at 1, Max at 2 and Lui at 3. Credit to TCU who have put together a brutal non-conference schedule. Stanford won their opening dual of the spring 7-0 last night.

Men: #4 Wake Forest @ Baylor
May we see Luca play Louis or Luc? Luca and Louis will probably be at 3, 4 or 5 in the singles line up.

Women: Georgia Tech @ #1 Georgia
If Georgia are at full strength it will be a major upset if GT come away from this with anything. NCAA champ Vidmanova is Georgia's No 1.

Women: #7 Texas @ #17 USC
Given the events in LA, not sure this will go ahead or be moved. Grace and Imogen should be in USC's regular singles 6, I would think Grace at 2 and Imogen at 3, 4 or 5.

Saturday
Men: #6 Arizona @ #9 Florida State
Jamie Connel was ACC player of the week for last weekend. Florida State came in for some criticism at the weekend as they were one of the few to not agree to play the match to completion when it was clinched 4-0. #9 ranked Craig Corey was down a set and a break when it was stopped and it would have been a major achievement and ranking points boost for the Alabama State player to have got the win. Most of these early dual matches elsewhere were fully played for practice and the individual rankings.

Men: Oklahoma State @ #16 San Diego
SD's 2nd match following only opening their spring program on Friday.

Sunday
Women: #10 Pepperdine @ #14 NC State
A bit of discovery for both these teams who both have had a large refresh of their rosters and Pepperdine lost their head coach mid-fall (who went to Florida). Early match for Jasmine against her old team if she gets selected to play. Preparation for Pepperdine won't be ideal due to the devastation around Malibu (although I understand the campus is unaffected).

Men: #7 Tennessee @ #4 Wake Forest
The first of 2 matches for Wake Forest on Sunday. WF have a few of these double header days on their schedule, which they can manage because of the absurd size of their roster. Although there is no JoMo on Tennessee's roster this year they have Lance Nisbet having joined the team this season.

Men: #2 TCU @ Baylor
Back to the venue for Lui's NCAA doubles championship.

Monday
Women: #7 UNC @ #8 Virginia
UNC is strengthened with the return of Reese Brantmeier after 11 months out with a torn meniscus at last year's National Indoors. UNC is another team with a big rebuild of their roster and will not be the force they have been in recent years, but will still be strong as one of the best recruiting schools. Will Isabelle find a place on the Virginia 6 or in doubles?

So, Lambda. Remind us of the schedule. Individual play is all done and dusted in November in terms of NCAA stuff? No big titles on the line in early part of 2025?

And it is all therefore focused on the team play? And the NCAA team events are May? How do the matches above play towards getting to the NCAA finals, is there a league with standings or some sort of subjective/objective assessment/selection to find the teams - 16 get there?

Sorry lots of questions !

Lambda wrote:

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Yes, it is all about team matches now, or duals as they call them.

The important dates are

Mid February National Indoor Championships. 16 teams qualify - 14 through competition at the end of the month (more on that next week) and the 2 hosts

Mid February/Early March to mid-April - conference season.

End of April - conference championships

Throughout May - NCAA Championships. 64 teams qualify for the NCAA Championships. Nearly half of these are the conference champions with the remainder from the national rankings. Through 3 rounds of "regional" competition these will be whittled down to 8 teams to make the Championships site .

All the matches taking place now count towards the team national rankings. There's no table for these results. For some teams these will just be practice matches, for others it will be their best chance to build their team ranking, especially if their conference presents limited opportunities for "best wins" that count in the ranking.

When the conference season starts those results will count towards the conference table that will determine who goes to the conference championships.

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 Thank you Lambda, as always. And do the National Indoor Champipnships provide any qualifiers for the NCAA or are they completely separate? 

Thursday was meant to be a quiet day with nothing to comment on. Millie-Mae Matthews and Florida Atlantic had something to say about that as FAU stunned #23 Miami with a 4-1 win. The first ever win for FAU women over Miami.

Millie got special praise from her Head Coach for playing a big part in the win. She was 2nd to finish singles with a 2 & 3 win on court 6 to put FAU back in the lead. Jaquelyn Ogunwale (Miami) was first to finish with a dominant 0 & 3 win on court 1 against Victoria Gomez O'Hayon (WTA 789).

Jaquelyn must be impressing in training to be put at the No 1 spot as a freshman ahead of Miami's 2 seniors who have much better WTNs (and I assume UTRs) than her. But she is repaying that faith the coach is putting in her with some excellent performances over these opening couple of weeks. She will lose the No 1 spot when Alexa Noel returns (presumably she's still going through the eligibility process after going pro in the summer). For a Top 25 programme, Miami doesn't have much strength in depth, which is reflected in the bottom half of the order all losing yesterday. Plus they've only got 6 players until Noel is eligible so they better hope nobody gets injured.

Some big matches coming up today, including Jack PJ playing his first college match since May.