Sunday, October 2, 2022

We have our first sets of semi-finalists for 2022 USTA League Nationals

The first weekend of 2022 USTA League Nationals has reached Sunday and with that, we have three sets of semi-finalists.

For the 2.5 women, it was pretty cut and dried with three 4-0 teams (Missouri Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Caribbean) and just one 3-1 team (Eastern) advancing.  There were a whopping eight teams at 2-2 tied for 5th, so we were perhaps just a match away from a huge tie at 2-2 and a 2-2 team advancing to the semis.  The 2.5 level is really hard to predict, but the simulation did have MOValley and two other predicted teams in the top-6.

The 3.5 men went the other way, there was a 4% chance of five 4-0 teams, but that was averted and there was a nice clean four 4-0 teams (Intermountain, Southern, SoCal, and Middle States), with a four-way tie at 3-1 behind them.  As far as the simulation goes, the top-3 teams were all in my predicted top-4, just Middle States overachieved a bit.

Last, the 3.5 women had two 4-0 teams (SoCal and Caribbean) and a five-way tie for two spots at 3-1 with PNW and Texas getting in both having 14-6 court records.  NorCal and Eastern were right behind at 13-7, and Eastern actually had a head-to-head win over PNW.  This is tough for Eastern as my simulation showed they had the tougher record than PNW and beat them, but don't advance.  That is just the way the rules are written, fair or not.  The simulation did call for three of the teams that advanced to be in or in the running, just PNW was the surprise.

Good luck today in the semis and finals!

No comments:

Post a Comment