Nationals week 1 has four sets of semi-finalists - What tie-breakers had to be used?

The first weekend of 2019 USTA League Nationals has made it to Saturday night, and that means we have semi-finalists all around.  With the random round-robin format, this means we likely had tie-breakers involved in deciding who advanced.

The 18 & Over 3.5 women had three teams finish 4-0 in Caribbean, Eastern, and Florida.  Caribbean got the #1 seed on best courts record, Eastern and Florida were tied at 14-6 but Eastern lost just 12 sets while Florida lost 16, so Eastern is #2.  Note the same result would have resulted should my preferred sets won/lost differential been used.

The last spot came down to a 3-way tie at 3-1 between Middle States, PNW, and Mid-Atlantic.  Middle States was 13-7 on courts two better than 11-9 for the others, so they advanced.

My simulation had Middle States and Eastern predicted to be semi-finalists, and Florida close behind.  It was just missing perennially underrated Caribbean.

The 18 & Over 3.5 men also has three teams at 4-0 in Texas, Southern, and Missouri Valley.  Texas was 18-2 on courts taking the #1 seed, Southern 15-5 taking the #2 seed, and MoValley 14-6 taking the #3 seed.

Tied at 3-1 were SoCal, NorCal, Caribbean, and Pacific Northwest.  SoCal was 17-3 on courts not losing a court other than in their 3-2 loss, easily taking the #4 spot.

Of the semi-finalists, my simulation had just Texas, but Southern and SoCal were in the small group lurking to make the semis.

The 18 & Over 5.0+ women had two undefeated teams in NorCal and Mid-Atlantic, the former taking the #1 seed by being 10-2 on courts vs 9-3.

There was a 3-way tie at 3-1 with Southwest, Middle States, and Florida.  Southwest was 8-4 on courts vs 7-5 for the other two, and Middle States took the fourth spot with fewer sets lost, 10 vs 13.  Note the same result would have resulted should my preferred sets won/lost differential been used.

The simulation had NorCal and Mid-Atlantic being in the semis.

The 18 & Over 5.0+ men had three undefeated teams in Southern, Texas, and Mid-Atlantic.  Southern did not drop a court so they took the #1 seed, Texas lost just one court, and Mid-Atlantic lost three.

For the fourth spot there was a 3-way tie at 3-1 with Southwest, Intermountain, and Eastern.  Southwest had the best record on courts and got the spot.

The simulation had all but Southwest in the semis so pretty close with three semi-finalists picked.


Thankfully, no really huge tie-breakers and no situation where we got to the controversial and flawed games lost tie-breaker.

Good luck to all the teams tomorrow!