The Aubserver: Women’s tennis would benefit from a Pac-12 team tournament

For the third consecutive year, a UCLA player has won the Pac-12 championship singles title.

Another championship for UCLA’s already packed trophy case.

Well, not quite.

USC is still the Pac-12 champion after going 10-0 in conference play throughout the season. And what about the 2014 champions? That title went to Cal, which also went 10-0 in conference play a season ago. And in 2013? It was the Trojans again, with another undefeated season, 9-0.

So the heroics that junior Catherine Harrison, sophomore Jennifer Brady and junior Kyle McPhillips channeled to win the past three Pac-12 singles championships up in Ojai didn’t really do anything to wrestle the conference title away from UCLA’s Californian rivals.

The format seems really out of place, given the 13 weeks of team competition leading up to the Pac-12 championship and the NCAA Tournament that follows. I wonder if there is even a reason for fans of the teams to be invested in the tournament.

I’m not in any way discrediting any of their efforts. In fact, I think Brady, Harrison and McPhillips should be celebrated for going through opponent after opponent, beating them and claiming the silverware. Just make sure to send the congratulations their way and not to the team.

Coach Stella Sampras Webster said she favors the flexibility that the format of the Pac-12 championship brings, particularly how it lets players with nagging injuries rest. She also said that Harrison, who normally plays No. 5 singles for the Bruins, was given a chance to prove herself against higher-ranked individuals from the “Conference of Champions.”

Too bad Harrison had a limited selection.

The Pac-12 does dominate the Intercollegiate Tennis Association women’s singles rankings, with the top-three players in the nation coming from UCLA, Stanford and Cal respectively. But it’s hard to argue for the tournament’s level of competition when all three schools decided that it’s not worth participating in the optional tournament.

UCLA senior Robin Anderson, who is currently the No. 1-ranked singles player in the country, opted out of the tournament for the third time after doing the same thing when she was ranked No. 2 in 2014 and No. 3 in 2013.

“Well, my sophomore year I was injured. I had biceps tendonitis, so I just rested that year,” Anderson said. “Last year and this year, I just really wanted to take a break from the season and (give) other people on the team a chance to play more matches because I’ve played a whole lot, and just to give my body a rest and to train more for NCAAs.”

And while the rest of the Power Five conferences – the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference – all participate in their own postseason conference team tournaments, Sampras Webster doesn’t think it gives them the edge over her team or the other Pac-12 teams.

“Some of the Pac-12 coaches want to do a team tournament, but the majority of coaches feel that their schedules are strong enough and we don’t need it,” Sampras Webster said.

On Tuesday, the NCAA proved Sampras Webster was right. USC was awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament despite previously having a No. 2 ranking, while the previously No. 1-ranked team, North Carolina, received the No. 2 seed after losing in the ACC tournament. This comes despite the Tar Heels’ (27-1, 14-0 ACC) overall record edging out the Trojans’ (21-2, 10-0 Pac-12).

It can’t just be a coincidence that North Carolina – which had previously never lost a game this season – fell out of favor with the NCAA selection committee just three days after falling out of the ACC tournament in the semifinal to eventual champion Virginia. And all this happened on a weekend when USC didn’t play a single match.

So strategically, it may be better for a top-tier team residing in the Pac-12 to have an extra week of break from the team competition, as it goes against the spirit of competition to withhold from participating in a conference tournament to rest up and avoid possibly giving up a favorable ranking.

The fact that it’s in the coaches’ hands makes it even less likely that the Pac-12 will adopt a team tournament to match the other Power Five conferences. According to Kyra Geithman, a Pac-12 communications fellow, six of the 11 Pac-12 women’s tennis coaches must agree on submitting a proposal for review at a biannual meeting of the Pac-12 school administrators.

But never say never.

Although it was a slower change compared to the other conferences, the Pac-12 men’s tennis championship is now in its fourth year as a team tournament.And not too long ago, UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin’s stance on the proposed restructuring of the Pac-12 championship was similar to Sampras Webster’s whenever it was brought up among the then-Pac-10 coaches.

“I was saying, ‘Boy, it hasn’t hurt us so far.’ Between Stanford, UCLA and ‘SC, we were dominating NCAA championship titles,” Martin said. “It was hard to say it was a real disadvantage when we were winning. … That was my point: Why change something if it’s not broke?”

But Martin had a change of heart ever since he dipped his toes in the water.

“I like it. And I think it’s good for our college tennis, I really do, if we get our fans involved, even up there (in Ojai),” Martin said. “I think I’ve come around to thinking, ‘OK, it’s good.’ And we still have two weeks to rest up before NCAAs.”

Whether the coaches of the Pac-12 women’s tennis teams will agree to adopt a more competitive format is something up in the air.

I’m all for it.

I’m all for a tournament that embraces the team aspect of college tennis. I’m for the Pac-12 adopting a competition format that promises to feature the nation’s top players. I’m for a Pac-12 championship where the finals could go down to a matchup where the fans are cheering in the stands in Libbey Park and all of the players’ teammates and coaches are screaming words of encouragement from the sidelines.

But ultimately, it’s not up to me – it’s up to the coaches.