What ties did we have for week 2 of 2023 USTA League Nationals? We almost had a 4-0 team sent home!

The round-robin for week 2 of 2023 USTA League Nationals is complete and we have four sets of semi-finalists.

The 40 & Over 3.5 women had three 4-0 teams in SoCal, Intermountain, and Texas, and then three teams at 3-1 behind them in Southern, New England, and NorCal.  Southern had the best court record and so they advanced.  Both southern and New England had their loss to Texas, but Southern got to play 0-4 Southwest, 0-4 Missouri Valley and 2-2 Hawaii, while New England got 0-4 Caribbean and 1-3 Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, so similar schedules.  NorCal was done in losing to 2-2 Northern.  Three of the semi-finalists were favorites, the other a contender.

The 40 & Over 3.5 men had four 4-0 teams so pretty cut and dried.  The top spot went to Texas over New England on fewer games lost with Midwest and Middle States rounding out the semis.  Texas was a favorte and Midwest a contender, New England and Middle States were right on the fringe of being contenders.

But the big news with the 3.5 men was that with the last match being played, there was a good chance that there would be five 4-0 teams.  Southern just needed to win a match against 0-3 PNW, but it finished in a 2-2 tie and PNW won the team match on the games lost tie-breaker by 3 games.  Had one tie-break gone Southern's way, or had they won three more games somewhere, they advance to the semis and Middle States would have been sent home as a 4-0 team.

The 18 & Over 4.5 women had three 4-0 teams in New England, Florida, and SoCal, and the Midwest was a clear #4 team at 3-1 beating out two others with a strong 16-4 court record.  Midwest was the only surprise, the other three all being favorites or contenders.

The 18 & Over 4.5 men had just two 4-0 teams in NorCal and Southern, and then three teams were 3-1 with Eastern missing out to PNW and Midwest with a worse court record to those two.  PNW arguably should have gotten the #3 seed as they were 29-20 (+9, 59.2%) on sets to Midwest's 27-19 (+8, 58.7%) but the USTA still has broken tie-breakers and looks simply at sets lost.  It is sort of moot but it would have the teams swapping opponents tomorrow.  Southern and Midwest were a surprises, both being expected to be well back, NorCal was a favorite.

Good luck to all the teams tomorrow.