It was a busy day for conference tournaments today. In St. Paul the #1 seeds prevailed over #2 seeds but had to endure tough three set battles to wear the crown. Phlower Vang of Highland Park outlasted Kimberly Tobar in a battle worthy of the name championship. On the doubles side of the ledger, it was #1 Johnson over #2 Washington Say Paw and Gay Ler Htoo. The Governors have a lock on the doubles titles going back to 2019. With the pandemic wiping out the 2020 season that translates into five straight titles and ninth overall. Phlower Vang’s is the second straight HP player to win the singles in the St. Paul conference tournament joining Sunshine Vang from last season. The Scots have four singles titles in St. Paul including 2008 with Khoua Xiong and 2012 with Gao Lee.
The school’s #1s were seven of the eight slots in the semis in St. Paul today. There was one exception: Johnson’s third singles Soua Xiong. She finished third in the conference. She lost to Phlower Vang in the semis, and then topped Como Park’s Xee Lee in the third place match in three sets. She got here today with wins over Humboldt’s #2, Central’s #1, and Harding’s #2.
Today I experimented with two cameras—an iPad on a tripod, and my iPhone on my knee. That means both singles and doubles will be dissected, and the insights gleaned from the data will be presented later like tomorrow. I did do the standard singles number crunching but that and the analysis will be posted tomorrow morning. Doubles will also get the treatment, but that will come even later.
Minneapolis held their final tournament day with the spotlight on doubles. And Roosevelt had the hat trick taking all three spots. #1 seed Maire Jeffries and Ayida Akaleword did not lose a set on the day. And held opponents to single digits in three of the eight sets. The Teddies third doubles team of Viv Cruz and Lara Hegele finished second flipping the second doubles team of Monce Palacios and Vanessa Ortega in the semis 21-17, 21-17. The day before Sophia Mitchell won the singles first title for Roosevelt in 46 years. The Teddies are back-to-back titlists in doubles. Last year Mitchell, along with Mollie won the first title for the Teddies since 1976. Maybe Mitchell’s nickname should be the drought-buster.
The EMA held their team tournament and Math & Science swept Hiawatha Collegiate in the semis and then did the same to Community of Peace in the title match. The Dragons held HC to single digits in ten of the potential 14 sets with an asterisk of one set not played or forfeited. COPA proved a more competitive match with three single digit sets, all at doubles. There again was one forfeit set and that was at fourth singles. They were headed into the third set on that, the only set loss for M&S.