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Posted

With our roster we certainly have a shot at a repeat. We lost Anna and Lulu, but Stearns deciding to come back this year was huge. Adding the Zamarripa twins is great for our doubles point chances, and  Ovrootsky will be a factor in our singles lineup. It will all come down to execution in May like it did last year.

Posted
8 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

With our roster we certainly have a shot at a repeat. We lost Anna and Lulu, but Stearns deciding to come back this year was huge. Adding the Zamarripa twins is great for our doubles point chances, and  Ovrootsky will be a factor in our singles lineup. It will all come down to execution in May like it did last year.

Only #11 Baylor and #19 OU are ranked from the Big 12 and we travel to both.  Also going to #17 Stanford and #9 Cal.  Host #11 Baylor in a non-conf and also #8 NC State.

Also kicking off at the Miami Spring Invite, which features #24 Miami, #8 NC State and Vanderbilt. 

Team will be tested, for sure. 

Posted (edited)
On 1/5/2022 at 3:25 PM, perfectchaos007 said:

With our roster we certainly have a shot at a repeat. We lost Anna and Lulu, but Stearns deciding to come back this year was huge. Adding the Zamarripa twins is great for our doubles point chances, and  Ovrootsky will be a factor in our singles lineup. It will all come down to execution in May like it did last year.

As somebody that's far from an expert in tennis that was my thought. 

Seems like with the Zamarripa twins Texas will actually improve in doubles, Texas has a legit line 1 player in Stearns, and they have Chavatipon/Collins/Rapulo returning who played lines 4-6 last season on the national title team. 

I know nothing about other rosters but shouldn't we be heavy favorites to repeat? 

Edited by texasstrong12
Posted

I wouldn't call us a heavy favorite to repeat. UCLA, UNC, Pepperdine, Georgia, and Texas will all have teams with similarly high UTR's. I wouldn't give any team a higher than 25% chance of winning the title. As we saw in last year's final, it came down to the final set of the final match that decided everything. I think we're a heavy favorite to make the final 4, but then matches are almost a coinflip.

Posted

Interesting. From reading about Ovrootsky, it sounds like she could be a one and done talent. If she's a similar caliber player as Stearns last season feels like this team might even have a higher ceiling. 

From an experience and talent perspective would it be crazy to say on paper this team might actually be better than last year's team? 

Posted
2 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

Interesting. From reading about Ovrootsky, it sounds like she could be a one and done talent. If she's a similar caliber player as Stearns last season feels like this team might even have a higher ceiling. 

From an experience and talent perspective would it be crazy to say on paper this team might actually be better than last year's team? 

I highly doubt that. I would put her at line 6 in the singles lineup to start. She has had some good wins in her juniors career, but can be inconsistent at times. It's a very similar juniors resume to Kylie Collins' who mostly played line 5 for us last season.

Just going by the UTR singles metric, our singles lineup for this season should be:


1. Stearns (11.47)
2. Chavatipon (11.11)
3. Collins (10.98)
4. Labrana (10.55)
5. Rapolu (10.44)
6. M. Zamarripa (10.08)

Both newcomers Zenalova and Ovrootsky are UTR 10.00, but I do expect both players to find plenty of singles playing time this season. 

  • Like 1
Posted
22 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

Interesting. From reading about Ovrootsky, it sounds like she could be a one and done talent. If she's a similar caliber player as Stearns last season feels like this team might even have a higher ceiling. 

From an experience and talent perspective would it be crazy to say on paper this team might actually be better than last year's team? 

For the second assessment, on paper I'd argue last year's team was better. Tijana, Lulu, Anna and Marta are the four who have left the team from last year. Tijana and Marta were no slouch in doubles (Tijana was actually nationally ranked in doubles before COVID hit). Anna is Anna. Additionally it can't be understated what a huge recruit Lulu was to the program. She is hands down on paper the most accomplished recruit Texas has ever had in the Joffe era and probably his whole coaching career. Had the highest ITF junior ranking (somewhere in top 15). She not only played in all four junior grand slams but also had wins at each of those tournaments. To put it into perspective, Bianca Turati had 0 wins at the grand slams as a junior player.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Unfortunately, it looks like Labraña left the team as she's no longer on the roster. She graduated last month, so perhaps she accepted a job offer or something. That's a bummer, but it will give an underclassman an opportunity to step in.

Edited by perfectchaos007
Posted

Unanimous preseason pick for the conference crown (Joffe voted for Baylor because he can't pick his team, so that's considered unanimous I believe) 

Posted

Flippin' Sweet...

Quick question---taking my daughter to a Sunday match later this month.  Do they let you bring in sealed water/snacks for little kids since they don't do concessions there?  Thanks.

Posted
20 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Flippin' Sweet...

Quick question---taking my daughter to a Sunday match later this month.  Do they let you bring in sealed water/snacks for little kids since they don't do concessions there?  Thanks.

Yep. Learned my lesson last time that I need to bring beverages. I could’t even find a water fountain 

Posted

Texas def. TXST 7-0. 3 freshman played in the singles lineup today and did fairly well except for Ovrootsky who struggled mightily with her serve (she was broken twice at love). Kylie Collins didn't play today, but we'll need her in the lineup against better teams. We really won't know much about this team until we play the ITA indoor tournament 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Playing Baylor today in non conference match, Baylor has had a lukewarm year so far. Did not make it out of their ITA regional as host losing to USC. Also had a really bad loss against unranked BYU.

Like Texas, Baylor's lineup is freshmen heavy

Posted

Playing against Missouri tomorrow indoors. Missouri is constantly in the bottom of the SEC but has shown that they can beat top 30 teams in the past. Still weak enough that hopefully the Zamarripa twins can get some court time.

Posted

The Zamarripa twins played line 3 doubles, and fortunately their match was suspended before losing. Allura Zamarripa won her match at line 6 in 3 sets. Zeylanova hopefully just getting rest and not injured, because we need her badly for the ITA indoors. Texas def. Mizzou 7-0

Posted (edited)

It’s going to be tough to make it back to the ITA indoor championship match this year. We open up with USC, who has the #1 and #12 ranked singles players on their roster. If seeding holds, then we’ll face OU in the quarter finals who looks to be our biggest challenge to win the big 12 this year after watching them beat #6 @Duke this season. Semi finals could be a 2021 national championship rematch against Pepperdine. If we can leave the ITA indoors with a 2-1 or 3-1 record, it will be a successful tournament for us 

Edited by perfectchaos007
Posted

OU destroyed us 4-1 today in the quarterfinals, and we'll play Cal tomorrow in a consolation match. We really miss the contributions of Lulu and Anna from last years team and I don't think this team has the talent to be national title contenders. 

Posted

Still a solid weekend. Two top 10 wins. Peyton showed she hasn't lost a step from last season.

Freshmen are battling hard.

Just need Charlotte to get out of her funk.

Posted
14 hours ago, Aleemay said:

Still a solid weekend. Two top 10 wins. Peyton showed she hasn't lost a step from last season.

Freshmen are battling hard.

Just need Charlotte to get out of her funk.

I expected her to be our line 2 singles player this season given her strong form to close out the year last season, but she has slipped to line 4. She looked very frustrated on the court yesterday trying to close out her match, but fortunately made it to the finish line. If she can recapture her form from last season, our team will be a lot better for it 

Posted
19 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

OU plays UNC in the finals ITA indoor finals tomorrow. Last year it was us that played UNC in the finals. Its a good thing we play OU at home this year, otherwise OU would be the clear favorite to win the conference 

Actually I think Texas will be playing OU on the road this year

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Aleemay said:

Actually I think Texas will be playing OU on the road this year

Crap, you're right I was looking at the mens schedule. That match will decide the Big12, and hopefully we catch the Corley sisters on an off day

Posted (edited)

NCST def. Texas 4-3. Texas lost the doubles point and then only got wins from Rapolu, Zeynalova, and Stearns. The middle of our lineup has hurt us this year, as was expected when losing Anna and Lulu from last year. (we crushed NCST in the NCAA tournament last year)

Edited by perfectchaos007
Posted
14 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

At least we beat Cal today 4-3, for the 2nd time this season. We'll drop in the rankings again this week. I would like to see Zeylanova move up to the #2 singles spot in our lineup. 

Suck it nerds! But not the other nerds at Stanford 

Posted

Cracked Racquets podcast did a number of interview pre season with some college head coaches. Tech coach said that their middle part of the lineup would be the weakest. True to form, Texas had some convincing victories.

Next up is TCU. Was shut out to Baylor yesterday.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)

Our Ukrainian stud didn’t drop a single game. In retrospect kind of embarrassing we lost the doubles point. The lineup is still being tinkered with quite a bit in doubles. 

Edited by perfectchaos007
Posted

Easy sweep over WVU today 7-0. Sunday will be a lot tougher of a matchup against ISU, who's only loss this year is to Baylor about 30 minutes ago. ISU is also playing their home matches at a highschool with just 4 court so that'll be fun

Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Texas def. ISU 6-1. Next weekend is the crucial Oklahoma swing which will probably decide the Big 12 title.

Cowgirls lost a heartbreaker to UCF today 4-3. UCF won 3 3rd set matches that included an 8-6 score in the tiebreaker.

Edited by Aleemay

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