Winding down the spring sports season and here's where we're at:
Baseball: cellar dwellers with the service academies.
Softball: 2nd in the conference with a 5-4 record and 14-14 overall. Marked improvement from a year ago. Brad Irwin deserves more time if they keep this up and make a run in the conference tournament. One question: Why have they played 20 less games than their conference mates?
Tennis: Doing what tennis always does. They're good. They're both going to win the conference regular season and tournaments, again.
Golf: They don't keep conference standings, but I would suspect they'll do what they do.
Track: Again, hard to tell until the conference meet. The women have done well as a group and the me have had some individual performances that are good.
I don't believe they can rail on track too hard since they've basically turned it into a walk on program.
But seriously, one of the three worst teams in baseball and the two worst are the service academies. Is this FINALLY the year that ETSU makes the change?
Ok, I'll go ahead and post these comments. I know most of you all don't care, but on this thread it won't matter much.
I attended the final women's tennis match here Saturday, against Furman, in which both were undefeated in conference, and the winner would be the #1 seed in the tournament, which starts Friday in Chattanooga (as does the men's).
It was intense. Way intense. Furman ended up winning 4-3, and it truly came down to the last match (somewhat obviously). The atmosphere was quite electric (yes, for a tennis match). Furman brought a LOT of fans. Attendance reported 121, which is about right. I.e., more than the baseball games drew until recently, and more than most of you on this board would imagine. Some of you may or may not know/remember the ongoing conflict between ETSU and Furman in tennis - mostly from the time mullins was tennis coach. Furman's coaches hated him (shocking, huh?), and there was always high tension when they played each other. That was *mostly* on the men's side, though.
I don't want to elaborate too much, but at least one Furman girl was trying to cheat on calls. She got overruled at least once, and two other times the referee was looking at the court of the other side of him or she would have 2 more times. At least one *other* Furman player had *3* calls overruled - which is a point penalty, and very rare in college tennis. In fact, I don't think I've seen it at ETSU matches (doesn't mean it hasn't happened). Beyond that, the Furman coach got into a heated verbal 'debate' with yet *another* referee - about what I couldn't tell. One ETSU player got assessed a penalty point for swearing. Like I say, it was intense. Furman takes their tennis seriously; at least 2 of their players (including #1) were 5-star recruits and one a 4-star. At least one's parents *both* were Furman athletes - father a QB on the football team back in the '80s(?). Yet another, although from Chattanooga, had her mother and two grandparents also go to Furman.
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.
If things go as they should (big "if"), then ETSU and Furman will meet again in the finals Sunday(?).
Furman's (more complete) version
Quote:"Today's match was an absolute battle, and we give ETSU a lot of credit," said Furman first-year head coach Adam Herendeen.
ETSU's version
This match was the most intense I've seen here since we hosted the conference tournaments those few years there at the end of the ASun years. A couple of those (both men's and women's) were very intense, with *more than* 121 in attendance. I think I reported on those at the time.
Anyway, congratulations to Yasser and Travis on a great season, no matter how it turns out down there.
Meanwhile..............
The men were winning easily (at the Citadel) to go undefeated in conference, and will be slightly favored to win the tournament in Chattanooga. But only slightly. They are now ranked 52nd, which is pretty darn good. It's conceivable should they be fortunate enough to win, they could get a #3 regional seed like they did one other previous time - but honestly not real likely.
David Biosca got player-of-the-year (repeating from last year). Yaser got coach-of-the-year (yet again). Counting Yaser's award, the team received an incredible 8 all-conference selections.
If they are fortunate enough to win down there, it will be a staggering 10 conference championships in a row. No, that's not as hard as winning 10 in a row in basketball or football, as there are a couple of fairly weak teams -- but there are enough strong teams (both in the SoCon and ASun) to make it very, very remarkable. I think most of you all know Yaser is very good at his job (just like when he was a player), but I suspect you don't know **HOW** good he is at what he does. He's freaking off-the-charts good at doing what he does.
Congratulations yet again to Yaser and the whole team!
I hate Furman. I remember years ago the men's teams got into an all out fracas on the court. Cheating bastards. I hope the Bucs win it all.
As much as we hated on the country club sports over the years, the athletes were always really cool and Yaser is a great guy as well. Hard not to like them, easy to despise Dave Mullins.
UPDATE: Baseball is now one game ahead of VMI for DEAD LAST. They've been passed by The Citadel.
(04-22-2016 10:02 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]UPDATE: Baseball is now one game ahead of VMI for DEAD LAST. They've been passed by The Citadel.
We need a change, badly. I think this season will be the last straw.
As expected, men and women both won easily yesterday. Today....men won fairly easily over Wofford in the semifinals. Samford and Furman locked in a dogfight on the other side of the bracket.
Women play semis this afternoon.
(04-23-2016 08:47 AM)etsuandpurdue3 Wrote: [ -> ] (04-22-2016 10:02 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]UPDATE: Baseball is now one game ahead of VMI for DEAD LAST. They've been passed by The Citadel.
We need a change, badly. I think this season will be the last straw.
The funny thing is that the baseball plyers before the season that I talked to said they had a pretty good team. lol
(04-23-2016 12:44 PM)BucFan1244 Wrote: [ -> ] (04-23-2016 08:47 AM)etsuandpurdue3 Wrote: [ -> ] (04-22-2016 10:02 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]UPDATE: Baseball is now one game ahead of VMI for DEAD LAST. They've been passed by The Citadel.
We need a change, badly. I think this season will be the last straw.
The funny thing is that the baseball plyers before the season that I talked to said they had a pretty good team. lol
I've also heard the coach is a jerk, should have been fired long ago.
Ok.....so Furman knocked off Samford in that other men's semi - a very mild surprise.
The women won, too, against Chatt., and looking at the scores it looks like they played pretty good. Marina Espana at #4 is playing above that level lately; playing with a passion. Today she crushed Alison Storie from Science Hill (who I'm not sure should have been playing at #4).
We were down in one of the (women's) uncompleted matches, and about even in the other two, so it was a bit closer than the 4-0 score, but wasn't a nailbiter, either.
On the other side, Samford's women edged the Furman cheaters 4-3 (gosh, I hate it when karma comes around like that), in a match that went right. down. to. the. wire.
So, tomorrow, ETSU men against Furman; ETSU women against Samford. And although that would appear to give ETSU's womenfolk a big boost, as Samford was only the #4 seed, they (Samford) are obviously playing very well at the moment. For (additional) evidence of that, Furman had beaten Samford 5-2 just two weeks ago.
Both matches start at 1, unfortunately, for all those of you driving down for that (see - I have a sense of humor). I'd say the men and women are both slight favorites; maybe moreso the men, as Samford's women have apparently found another gear.
Men and women both won the doubles point.
Women win surprisingly easily over Samford, 4-0, losing only 1 set. Poor, poor Furman cheaters.
Men well on their way. They have won the first set at positions 1-4 and 6, so shouldn't be long....
Yikes! The tide is turning!
Up 3-0 but all momentum gone. Two of the remaining matches have now split sets.
Finally! Rogerio pulls his out. He's won a lot of big matches in his career.
CONGRATS yet again (10 in a row!) to Yaser, Travis, and all the guys and girls!
(04-20-2016 10:17 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]Tennis: Doing what tennis always does. They're good. They're both going to win the conference regular season and tournaments, again.
Good call dude
(04-24-2016 05:53 PM)Buced_Up Wrote: [ -> ] (04-20-2016 10:17 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]Tennis: Doing what tennis always does. They're good. They're both going to win the conference regular season and tournaments, again.
Good call dude
.......except the women did not win the regular season. They were second behind Furman, due to that loss last weekend here, cheating or not.
Congrats to the Tennis teams! That's a fantastic achievement!
It now also appears that the Men's Golf team won the SoCon championship as well. Congrats!!
Wow! Congratulations to the golf and tennis teams.