(03-05-2017 12:01 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  

(03-04-2017 04:35 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Good to see the women get a tiny bit of revenge (for the guys) on Ga. St. down in Atlanta, 4-3 today. Ga. St. is a very good team, and so this is a nice win.

On the other hand, the guys' match today was moved to Bristol because of the wind and cold (really just the wind), and ETSU lost it 4-2 to the Ospreys. As usual, we struggled in doubles, losing that point, and also being weak on the bottom half of the lineup.

(And as usual, the ETSU article is written a bit overly slanted, but I won't go into that.)

If it's an official university release, that's literally their job. It's not going to be unbiased.

Back away slowly Buccannerlover, this is seems to be huge pet peeve that ETSU covers ETSU sports on the website.

(03-05-2017 12:01 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  

(03-04-2017 04:35 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Good to see the women get a tiny bit of revenge (for the guys) on Ga. St. down in Atlanta, 4-3 today. Ga. St. is a very good team, and so this is a nice win.

On the other hand, the guys' match today was moved to Bristol because of the wind and cold (really just the wind), and ETSU lost it 4-2 to the Ospreys. As usual, we struggled in doubles, losing that point, and also being weak on the bottom half of the lineup.

(And as usual, the ETSU article is written a bit overly slanted, but I won't go into that.)

If it's an official university release, that's literally their job. It's not going to be unbiased.

No need to re-litigate this here; the same arguments apply. It can be "biased" (slanted, spun), but can still be more informational - and precise.
But while I'm here..........

Note how the scores are reported:

Singles

1. #101 David Biosca (ETSU) def. #64 Jack Findel-Hawkins (UNF) 7-5, 6-3
2. #108 Jefta Kecic (UNF) def. #90 Diego Nunez (ETSU) 6-4, 6-3
3. #69 Robert Herrera (ETSU) def. Yannick Zuern (UNF) 6-3, 7-5
4. Lasse Muscheites (UNF) def. David Gonzalez (ETSU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
5. Sahil Deshmukh (UNF) def. Miguel Este (ETSU) 6-3, 6-2
6. Wenceslao Albin (ETSU) vs. Zach Goldberg (UNF) 2-6, 1-4, unfinished
---------

Note that in the #6 match, which went unfinished because the overall match ended when North Florida got to 4 points. ETSU's Albin was behind, having lost the first set 6-2, and was down in the second 4-1. BUT...........White or whoever wrote this, put Albin's name first in the score, instead of the UNF guy, *as it's supposed to be done*. You don't flip the names like that to make it somehow look better than it was. THAT'S JUST WRONG.

There are more tidbits there, but that's the most egregious, blatant abuse of "editing". That may seem minor to you all, but that's just considered very bad form in tennis reporting.

You can spin a little, but there are standards. There are limits.

Ok, this time they did it right, in the win over Florida Atlantic:

Anthony Schohn (FAUM) vs. Diego Nunez (ETSU) 6-3, 3-6, 4-3, unfinished

Schohn was ahead when the match was halted, so his name is supposed to go first.

(Thank you Yaser and/or Mike White for reading this board and reacting properly.)

First singles victories of the year for Albin and for freshman Juan Lugo (in only 3 matches).

Whoa:
http://www.wcyb.com/sports/etsu/zaatini-.../398113671

Whoa doesn't describe a guy quitting mid season who has bled blue and gold his ENTIRE ADULT LIFE. Yaser Zaatini has never worked anywhere else professionally, ever. I hope it's nothing health wise and maybe he's just burnt out and wants to do something else.

Smells bad, huh. Usually means scandal--resigning in lieu of dismissal. Goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, I hope I am wrong.

No inside info here, but I hope something bad isn't going on. Even if you're burnt out, you would finish the season. I, too, hope it isn't his health either.

(03-16-2017 08:20 AM)Efan Wrote:  ...Even if you're burnt out, you would finish the season....

Unless you're Steve Spurrier. :(

Some might argue Steve didn't want to go out with a losing season and took the easy way out. But like the Tootsie Roll pop, the world may never know.

I have NO insider knowledge, just something wrote as a comment on a post on Facebook. Something about if you knew him very well it shouldn't surprise anyone for him to leave abruptly. Something about going before an investigation and black mark on the department? And it alluded to the recent firing of the other ETSU professor from sexual harassment. Again - this is JUST a comment I saw and for all I know a terrible misleading rumor. I actually know very little about the tennis team at all.

(03-17-2017 07:22 AM)queenladybug817 Wrote:  I have NO insider knowledge, just something wrote as a comment on a post on Facebook. Something about if you knew him very well it shouldn't surprise anyone for him to leave abruptly. Something about going before an investigation and black mark on the department? And it alluded to the recent firing of the other ETSU professor from sexual harassment. Again - this is JUST a comment I saw and for all I know a terrible misleading rumor. I actually know very little about the tennis team at all.

Doesn't seem to be sexual harassment like the other guy but he has agreed to pay back the school over 30,000 dollars so.....

http://wjhl.com/2017/03/24/former-etsu-t...ign=buffer

Tennis anyone?

Follow the money, I'm sure you'd be amazed at what comes up.

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor [post #2 in the "Spring Sports" thread from last year]:

"Not to mention....the best female tennis player to come out of this area since Margie (Brown) Katras, Danni Vines (Elizabethton; 2-time defending state champion; 5-star recruit), will be going there this fall as a freshman."

ETSU is at Furman right now, and Vines and her partner just led a comeback to win the doubles point. The Paladins won all 3 courts, by, respectively, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5, after being down at least a game in each. At #3, Esguerra and Viccars led 4-0 before falling apart. Does not bode well for singles.

And for those not paying attention, like last year, ETSU and Furman are the top two teams, both undefeated in conference this year.

Each team won 3 of the first sets in singles. Good, but we gotta win 4 of them after the doubles breakdown.

EDIT:
And it's over, 4-2. Esguerra won at 5 pretty easily, and Marina Espana won after a very tough second set 6-2, 7-5, so she extends her unbeaten-at-ETSU streak (currently an incredible 32-0). Last year's POY Ansley Speaks absolutely crushed our #1, Ioanna Markesini, 1 and 0. Vines and Alory Pereira had split sets when it ended.

BTW.....Vines is 16-5 on the year for Furple, winning 9 of her last 10. She and Katty Weymouth, who came back to win today at #2 doubles, are 11-0 this year as a team.

[And in an update, they finished the Vines/Pereira match, with Vines winning the tiebreaker, so they're saying now it's 5-2.]

After reading the ETSU account of the women's Furman match, I've come to the conclusion that whoever does the write-ups (presumably Mike White) just doesn't know much about tennis. I had wondered if Yaser wrote the gist of it, then Mike polished it up, but it may have been White all along. Whoever it is continually confuses 'match', 'game', and 'point'. Over and over again.

Just one example, from that recent match: "The Bucs battled in doubles play as all three doubles matches was decided by two points....". Even ignoring the incorrect grammar, it's still wrong.

Just while I'm on a roll from the golf comments, here's more sloppiness:

"ETSU concludes the regular season at home on Friday"

http://www.etsubucs.com/mtennis/news/201...on-friday/

Note the "Friday". Yet in the first sentence of the body: "The ETSU men’s tennis team will conclude its regular season on Saturday....", and then proceeds to say "....on April 14 with first serve set for 2 p.m." - which is today (Friday).

Nothing wrong with having a grad student write stuff, I guess, but the ultimate responsibility falls on White to at least proofread the finished product. *Some*body needs to have some standards in this town, since the JC Press long ago abandoned theirs. LOL. (And I *wish* it was actually funny.)

By the way, the girls' win at WKU yesterday on WKU's senior day was a nice one. Of note is that they finally moved Marina Espana up to #1 (overdue, imo). Also of note is that since my earlier comments about incorrectly putting the ETSU player first on occasion when posting the unfinished matches, they've done it correctly ever since then.
WKU was 11-4 going in, and had won over some decent teams. And had won 5 in a row. WKU's coach, Jonatan Berhane, was an assistant here a few years back. And going further back still, he had played at V-I back when they had a good team (and were still extant).

Congrats to the Bucs netters in winning the SoCon regular season title yet again (ho-hum - but not really). Good crowd on hand (some of which you can see on the facebook site) to watch them put down Citadel. Although it was 7-0, it was more competitive than that. I don't think the final result was ever in doubt, but the Bulldogs were game and some good tennis was on display - all up and down the line-up.
I must say that Robert Herrera was like a machine yesterday; one of those "another gear" performances. Although the final score was 0 and 1, his freshman opponent from Cape Town (von Zyl) was a quality player. Herrera just overwhelmed him with a strong, strong effort. This performance was much closer to his earlier ones when he was ranked in the top 100, than the #125 ranking he carries at the moment. (And I'm not meaning to diss the other players - I was just very impressed with Herrera.) And remember, way back in January, he defeated the #21 (now only 64th, however) player when they lost to Wake Forest, and was at one point early in the season ranked (at least) as high as 69.

I know I've been remiss in not doing much reportage on the season after the Yaser 'incident', but there are multiple reasons for that.
Nevertheless, that's 15(!!) years in a row (and remember, there were always 2-3-4 other strong teams even in the ASun) that ETSU has won either a regular season or tournament title. In most of those years, both. Quite extraordinary, and I give yet another shout out to Yaser for putting it all together.

Also, Furman, who finishes at #2 in the conference, losing only to the Bucs earlier this month (5-2 in a rugged match), lost yesterday to Georgia St. - who won here in a disputed match in late February that I reported on earlier in this thread. They lost 4-3, just like we did, which likely sets up a tough encounter with them at the conference tournament - should both teams advance to the finals (not a given at all). And for further context, Ga. St. has been steadily moving up in the national rankings this season, and before yesterday were all the way up to #35.

And speaking of rankings, David Biosca has moved all the way up to 52nd. Earlier this week he claimed his 100th overall victory as a Buc in a good team win over MTSU down there. (And after yesterday, he's now at 103.)

SoCon tournament starts Friday in Greenville.

The end-of-the-regular season women's match against UNC-G Saturday was much closer than expected. ETSU eventually won 4-3, but it was a struggle. Jayde Viccars at #6 turned her ankle (badly) with the score 2-2 in the first set, and had to retire. But does the etsubucs.com website mention that? No. Will she be able to play in the conference tournament beginning Friday? Who knows? She couldn't walk on it afterwards. I believe if A.J. Merriweather had had to leave a game with an injury leading up to the SoCon tournament, that would be news, and it would be reported. Just no explanation at all; just the word "default".

We were woeful in the doubles, losing each of the 3 sets at 0, 2, and 3 respectively. So when Viccars went down, that left the Bucs in a 2-0 hole. Fortunately, the top of the line-up prevailed. The match of the day, and not just because it decided the overall match, was at #3 where Alory Pereira and UNC-G's Nancy Bridges were in an all-out (literal) slugfest. Hard to believe that perhaps the smallest of each team were just absolutely crunching the ball back-and-forth point after long point. Pereira eventually prevailed, but it was a grueling, gritty battle. Props to her for holding it together against just a terrific fighter in Bridges. Both players should be proud of that effort.

Not as big a crowd as the day before for the men's match, but a nice one nevertheless, especially for a Saturday, and the day before Easter.

Furman must be now optimistic going into the tournament, as UNC-G is now 3-18 on the season. Yes, 3-18. They've played a *bit* better than that, from looking at their scores, but this should not have been that close.