Shocker Tennis - 2016 Spring Season

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks head into the 2016 Spring Season with an ITA D-1 ranking of #39.

The Shockers return seven of their top-eight singles players from last year's 24-4 squad that swept the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and postseason tournament titles for the seventh-consecutive year and advanced to its seventh-straight NCAA Tournament.

I don't think it would be wise to bet against the Shocks making it eight in a row.

Would love to see the Lady Shocks advance into at least the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. They came excruciatingly close to doing that last year against Georgia Tech.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2016/1/5/WTEN_0105160458.aspx

:poster_shocks:

[RoyalShock]

How about that 4-1 victory over a slightly higher ranked OU team!

[1972Shocker]

How about that 4-1 victory over a slightly higher ranked OU team!

Very nice indeed. 35th ranked OU has a very good program and the Shocks (#39) have not had a great deal of success against the Sooners in the past.

WSU (3-0, 1-0 MVC) defeated Oklahoma for the first time since 2009 and for only the fifth time in 38 meetings overall. The Sooners had taken the last five in the series and 28 of the last 30. It's also the Shockers' highest-ranked dual win since a 4-3 victory over No. 31 Rice near six years ago.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2016/1/17/WTEN_0117162636.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Say what you will about former Shocker AD Eric Sexton but one thing he undeniably got right was his hiring of Coach Colin Foster.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks defeated #61 Minnesota 4-1 in the opening round of their ITA Kickoff pod at Texas A&M on Saturday. After losing the doubles point the Shocks roared back to win 4 consecutive singles matches to clinch the win.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2016/1/23/WTEN_0123160653.aspx

The Shocks are currently playing #1 pod seed Texas A&M. The Shocks are currently up 1-0 after capturing the doubles point. TAM leads in 3 of the singles matches and the Shocks lead in 3. Looks like this match is going down to the wire.

Live Stats

[1972Shocker]

Texas A&M wins the #2 and #3 singles to go up 2-1.

Update: Gabriela Porubin wins the #1 singles to tie it up at 2-2.

Update: Giulia Guidetti wins the #6 singles to tie it up at 3-2. The remaining #4 and #5 singles are very close an could go either way.

Update: Both the #4 and #5 singles going to a 3rd set. Shocks need to get one of these.

Update: TAM takes the 3rd set in the #5 singles to tie the match at 3-3. The Shocks lead the #4 singles 5-4 but are on serve with each player having 2 service breaks. TAM broke to take a 3-2 lead but Aleksandra Trifunovic of the Shocks broke right back. TAM broke again to go up 4-3 but Aleks again responded with a break and then held her own serve to go up 5-4 with TAM serving.

Update: TAM holds service. 5-5 in the deciding match. On serve.

Update: TAM breaks Aleks serve to go up 6-5. Aleks and the Shocks have their backs against the wall now.

Update: TAM holds serve to take the final set 7-5 and win the match 4-3.

Oh so close, but just couldn't quite get over the hump. Very nice effort by the Lady Shocks however.

BTW, Texas A&M was ranked #10 in the country.

[molly jabali]

Say what you will about former Shocker AD Eric Sexton but one thing he undeniably got right was his hiring of Coach Colin Foster.

THIS!!!! Colin is not only a great coach but a real plus for area tennis!

[RoyalShock]

Texas A&M wins the #2 and #3 singles to go up 2-1.

Update: Gabriela Porubin wins the #1 singles to tie it up at 2-2.

Update: Giulia Guidetti wins the #6 singles to tie it up at 3-2. The remaining #4 and #5 singles are very close an could go either way.

Update: Both the #4 and #5 singles going to a 3rd set. Shocks need to get one of these.

Update: TAM takes the 3rd set in the #5 singles to tie the match at 3-3. The Shocks lead the #4 singles 5-4 but are on serve with each player having 2 service breaks. TAM broke to take a 3-2 lead but Aleksandra Trifunovic of the Shocks broke right back. TAM broke again to go up 4-3 but Aleks again responded with a break and then held her own serve to go up 5-4 with TAM serving.

Update: TAM holds service. 5-5 in the deciding match. On serve.

Update: TAM breaks Aleks serve to go up 6-5. Aleks and the Shocks have their backs against the wall now.

Update: TAM holds serve to take the final set 7-5 and win the match 4-3.

Oh so close, but just couldn't quite get over the hump. Very nice effort by the Lady Shocks however.

BTW, Texas A&M was ranked #10 in the country.

Based on this and what the ladies did to OU and UM, it looks like they are right around a top-10 team, and certainly top-15. They are going to rip through the Valley.

[1972Shocker]

Based on this and what the ladies did to OU and UM, it looks like they are right around a top-10 team, and certainly top-15. They are going to rip through the Valley.

They don't have to wait long for another shot at a highly ranked team as they travel to Stillwater next Saturday for a date with #11 Oklahoma State.

GoShockers.com report on Texas A&M match.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks can't be accused of trying to polish their record by scheduling a bunch of weak sisters. They have beaten 35th ranked Oklahoma and 61st ranked Minnesota before dropping a very close match to 10th ranked Texas A&M.

WSU's tough schedule continues this weekend with No. 11 Oklahoma State. Nine of the Shockers 20 non-conference matches are against nationally-ranked teams, with Washington (52), Arkansas (34), Kansas (75), New Mexico (64) and Tulsa (48) still to come.

Unfortunately, none of these matches are at home.

[1972Shocker]

WSU Women's Tennis @GoShockersWTEN59m59 minutes ago
Shocks get singles wins from Becky, Giulia, and Aleks to beat BYU 4-0. We play @MizzouTennis at 5 PM.

Live Stats of Mizzou Match

Update: Shocks win the doubles point to go up 1-0.

Update: Aleksandra Trifunvic wins the #4 singles 6-1, 6-0 to put the Shocks up 2-0. However, Giulia Guidetti loses 3-6, 3-6 in the #3 singles to make it 2-1 Shocks. The #1 and #2 singles are tight matches up for grabs and the #5 and #6 singles have not yet started.

Update: Gabriela Porubin takes the #1 singles 6-3, 6-4 to put the Shocks up 3-1. I think Gabriela fell behind 0-2 in both sets before rallying to win both.

Update: Rebecca Pedrazzi loses in the #2 singles 3-6, 4-6 as Mizzou makes it 3-2 with the #5 singles and #6 singles just starting. Shocks need to win one of those remaining matches to close out a win.

Update: Abby Stevens clinches the match with a 6-4, 6-1 win in #5 singles to put the Shocks up 4-2. Tanaporn Thongsing was at 5-7, 2-0 in #6 singles when the match was closed out by Abby.

Match Report and Results

[1972Shocker]

For the 4 the time in 5 weeks a Lady Shocker has been selected as the Valley Women's Tennis Player of the Week with Aleks Trifunovic earning that honor this week. The interesting thing is that Gabrela Porubin, arguably our top player, has not won that honor yet.

The #32 Shocks have two more tough matches in front of them this week as the take on #34 Washington in a neutral site match down in Stillwater then on Monday they will head over to Fayetteville to take on #44 Arkansas. Not sure where the Shocks non-con SOS would rank but it looks to me like they have and are playing a very strong non-con slate. Hopefully, that will pay dividends when NCAA Tournament time rolls around.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2016/2/16/WTEN_0216162939.aspx

[1972Shocker]

The 31st ranked Lady Shocks took a hard fought 4-2 neutral court win today over the 33rd ranked Washington Huskies. The Lady Shocks continue there tough schedule with a 1:00p match tomorrow at #42 Arkansas.

http://www.gohuskies.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30200&ATCLID=210733395

[1972Shocker]

Aleks Trifunovic picked up her 2nd consecutive Valley POW honor after her performance in the Shock's 4-2 win over #33 Washington. She joins teammate Giulia Guidetti to achieve that and the Lady Shocks have now received 5 of 6 Valley POW honors.

More importantly the Shockers catapulted 10 spots in the rankings to #21.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2016/2/23/WTEN_0223163731.aspx

Unfortunately, that Top 25 ranking may be short-lived as the Shocks dropped a tough 4-3 match at #42 Arkansas on Monday.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2016/2/22/WTEN_0222161551.aspx

That's not a terrible loss but will no doubt drop the Shocls back down in the rankings a bit.

As I type this the Shocks are in Lawrence taking on the #23 ranked Jayhawks.

Live Stats

Go Shocks!

[1972Shocker]

Shocks @ KU:

The doubles point, which could prove to be very valuable is up for grabs. Gabriela Porubin and Julia Schiller wons their match 6-1. However, Luca Pump and Guilia Guidetti dropped their match 4-6. The match will be decided by the #2 doubles which KU currently leads 6-5.

Update: Rebecca Pedrazzi and Aleks Trifunivic get the #2 doubles even at 6-all. I believe they will go to a tiebreaker point which will determine who wins the doubles point.

Update: Rebecca and Aleks get 'er done taking the tiebreaker to win their match 7-6 and give the Shocks a very important point to start the match. I am not sure what the tiebreaker score was.

Update: The Shocks are not off to a good start in singles play trailing in 5 of the 6 first sets.

Update: Shocks lose the 1st set in 5 of 6 singles matches with only Abby Stevens winning a set (6-4) in the #6 singles. Shocks really have there work cut out now.