Friday @ 11:30 AM vs. Georgia St. (ranked 59th) at the Bristol Racquet Club. I think it was originally scheduled here in JC, but either the weather and/or the courts not being fully ready caused them to move up there. And I was very much looking forward to seeing that match.

Then they play Nebraska Saturday @ 3:30 PM - same place.

These are both home-and-home situations, and we lost close matches in both of them last year as visitors.

The girls have already knocked off MTSU and Jerry Falwell's chicks.
For those of you who like to criticize our tennis teams for having foreign players, this year we've got girls from Greece, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Australia. Oh, yeah - and Elizabethton. So have at it...
I think we graduated 4 seniors last year, so this is a young group (although 3 are transfers, I believe).

I wouldn't be one to complain about foreign tennis players. There was a girl on the women's team that must have been from Eastern Europe who was tall, blonde and a total knock out; she sat right next to me in a math course.. I day dreamed about her often LOL. If anything, foreign tennis players boost campus morale haha

I never minded the tennis players, male or female. Most were always really nice.

Ten bucks says the girl from Elizabethton doesn't play except aganist the lesser A-Sun schools. Only girl that was local that I ever saw compete was Tara. I remember one from Gate City or something like that who I'm pretty sure never played and was only on the team a year.

Could this mean that tennis ain't much of a big deal in the USA?

(02-15-2013 02:12 PM)BucFyre Wrote:  Ten bucks says the girl from Elizabethton doesn't play except aganist the lesser A-Sun schools. Only girl that was local that I ever saw compete was Tara. I remember one from Gate City or something like that who I'm pretty sure never played and was only on the team a year.

You might be right about Jessica, but so what? That's what depth is for. The *other* Tara was Tara Sheets from Gate City, but she played plenty (usually #6), played all 4 years (see final paragraph at bottom for clarification), and clinched the conference tournament championship at ETSU one year (2009?). [yes. her record below confirms this.] Not sure why you don't remember all that....

From the etsubucs.com site:

HONORS
2010 A-Sun All-Academic Team
2009 A-Sun All-Tournament Team
2008 A-Sun All-Freshman Member

2009-10: Finished the season with a 6-5 overall singles record including a 2-1 mark in A-Sun play…Compiled an 18-9 doubles mark while teaming mainly with Diana Navrostska…Also was paired with Andrea Voinea and Yevgeniya Stupak during the year…Teamed with Navrostska to knock off Lauren Holton and Victoria Krook of No. 60 North Florida to help the Bucs win the A-Sun regular season crown…The duo finished the spring with a 15-4 mark and an impressive 9-1 mark in A-Sun play.

2008-09: Earned a spot on the A-Sun All-Tournament team after posting two wins, including the clinching victory in the Lady Bucs 5-2 comeback win over Stetson in the A-Sun Tournament Championship match… posted a 13-6 overall record… won the ETSU Fall Classic Pink Bracket with a perfect 3-0 record… finished the season strong with a 4-0-2 record during her last six matches of the year… went 20-13 in doubles with teammates Andra Voinea, Vita Moskaliova and Whitney Trotter.

2007-08: Despite having a 6-11 overall record, Sheets earned A-Sun All-Freshman team honors… with various ETSU teammates, Sheets posted a six doubles wins, while going unbeaten in pairs action during A-Sun action.

The site says she was on the team, as a senior, in 2010-2011, but doesn't have a record for her for that year, that I can find easily. So maybe she didn't have a record for that year, but she certainly had at least 3 full seasons.

(02-14-2013 06:16 PM)Youre my boy blue! Wrote:  I wouldn't be one to complain about foreign tennis players. There was a girl on the women's team that must have been from Eastern Europe who was tall, blonde and a total knock out; she sat right next to me in a math course.. I day dreamed about her often LOL. If anything, foreign tennis players boost campus morale haha

There were numerous attractive, tall, blonde girls on the team from Ukraine, Belarus, and one from Poland in the late 00's. They were great kids, too, and uniformly intelligent.

Gentleman, please be respectful of the female athletes. They are women, not "girls" or "chicks."

(02-15-2013 09:34 PM)jrbucs75 Wrote:  Gentleman, please be respectful of the female athletes. They are women, not "girls" or "chicks."

Respectfully, to call a female college student a "girl" is not disrespectful in the least. When I used "chicks", I was obviously being mirthful, as the context makes clear.

The guys were victorious over Ga St., 4-0, although it was closer than that score would indicate.

Zaatini:

“We had a great crowd to really cheer us on and give us a great home-court advantage. I want to thank everyone who showed up to support the guys.”

The girls/women lost a *very* close match at Akron 4-3.

(02-15-2013 04:08 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  

(02-15-2013 02:12 PM)BucFyre Wrote:  Ten bucks says the girl from Elizabethton doesn't play except aganist the lesser A-Sun schools. Only girl that was local that I ever saw compete was Tara. I remember one from Gate City or something like that who I'm pretty sure never played and was only on the team a year.

You might be right about Jessica, but so what? That's what depth is for. The *other* Tara was Tara Sheets from Gate City, but she played plenty (usually #6), played all 4 years (see final paragraph at bottom for clarification), and clinched the conference tournament championship at ETSU one year (2009?). [yes. her record below confirms this.] Not sure why you don't remember all that....

From the etsubucs.com site:

HONORS
2010 A-Sun All-Academic Team
2009 A-Sun All-Tournament Team
2008 A-Sun All-Freshman Member

2009-10: Finished the season with a 6-5 overall singles record including a 2-1 mark in A-Sun play…Compiled an 18-9 doubles mark while teaming mainly with Diana Navrostska…Also was paired with Andrea Voinea and Yevgeniya Stupak during the year…Teamed with Navrostska to knock off Lauren Holton and Victoria Krook of No. 60 North Florida to help the Bucs win the A-Sun regular season crown…The duo finished the spring with a 15-4 mark and an impressive 9-1 mark in A-Sun play.

2008-09: Earned a spot on the A-Sun All-Tournament team after posting two wins, including the clinching victory in the Lady Bucs 5-2 comeback win over Stetson in the A-Sun Tournament Championship match… posted a 13-6 overall record… won the ETSU Fall Classic Pink Bracket with a perfect 3-0 record… finished the season strong with a 4-0-2 record during her last six matches of the year… went 20-13 in doubles with teammates Andra Voinea, Vita Moskaliova and Whitney Trotter.

2007-08: Despite having a 6-11 overall record, Sheets earned A-Sun All-Freshman team honors… with various ETSU teammates, Sheets posted a six doubles wins, while going unbeaten in pairs action during A-Sun action.

The site says she was on the team, as a senior, in 2010-2011, but doesn't have a record for her for that year, that I can find easily. So maybe she didn't have a record for that year, but she certainly had at least 3 full seasons.

Tara Sheets was not who I was thinking of. Forgive me, it's been a few years since I worked there. I left in 2008. I don't recall the names of the women but they were only there for one season and very rarely, if ever, played.

I personally have no issue with them bringing in players from other countries. The girls that Coach Brooks brought in were always very kind to me when I worked with them. It just seems silly to take up roster space with girls who only ever competed in the ETSU Invitational.

Well....Jessica played again, this time at #5 against undefeated and nationally-ranked Oregon:

"ETSU (2-2) just came off a 4-3 loss to Akron Friday and was dealt the same fate in a tough battle against the nationally ranked Ducks (8-0). The final point came down to Lana Buttner and Jessica Brumit at No. 5 singles, which Buttner edged out in three sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4."

I guess donate my $10 to the ETSU football fund, if you don't mind....
-----------------------------------------------------

The only recent locals other than Jessica, that I can remember, are Tara and Tara. I'm pretty positive another girl from Gate City wasn't on the team recently, but I can't say that's impossible.

But let's say that what you say is true...
That's not any different that having Todd Halverson on the basketball team right now, as a walk-on, or Josh Johnson last year. And when we had football teams, there were several walk-ons most years. You must well know that Yaser and Steve partitioned partial scholarships and full scholarships as best they could, stretching them as they had to. Baseball the same way, etc....
There's certainly nothing wrong with carrying someone on the roster, even if they only play against the weaker teams 2-5 times a year. It's good to have the college competition experience, have practice partners, etc. - on top of the depth issue. "Taking up roster space" seems to me to be ok, if he wasn't also giving them partials....

As to other possibilities of who you might be thinking of, there was a Jessica Ratliff from Tennessee High in Bristol who made the team, I'm pretty sure as a walk-on, in 2008, but don't think she stayed past two years. Here is an account of her playing a match in her sophomore year:

Wofford match results: Ratliff only loser

....but that was Spring of 2010, after you were gone.

Also, there was a freshman from Nashville - same situation - don't think she stuck around. Just found a link that shows she played in the lower flights of a couple of matches in the fall of 2007:

Brittany Stewart's entire college career?

(02-18-2013 01:05 PM)BucFyre Wrote:  I personally have no issue with them bringing in players from other countries.

Nor do I; in fact, I think it's a good thing. However, some on this forum in years past have decried that practice, saying the scholarships should go to local players - and I've tried over and over to explain that there just aren't enough high-quality local players to make that practical. (If you want to have successful, winning tennis teams, which Yaser and Steve of course (have) want(ed) to do, and it's a very key part of their job, after all.)

Women win their conference opener this weekend. The men lost a close on 4-3 to a very good UNF team then dropped a non-conference home match on the new courts.

ETSU women (13-5, 8-0 A-Sun) won their 6th season A Sun championship and third perfect A-Sun season. Men finish in 2nd with one conference loss. Go bucs!

Both matches tight yesterday - closer than the score indicated. Today will be tough....

(04-21-2013 09:11 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Both matches tight yesterday - closer than the score indicated. Today will be tough....

You were right. Women lost to UNF in the A Sun Finals.

The men won their seventh consecutive championship.

Congrats yet again to the men! That #1 doubles match was *extremely* intense!

Also congrats to the Osprey women!

And I have to say it - the UNF women were tougher, both mentally and physically, in those final two deciding matches. That being said, that match was about as close as one can be. If ETSU had won the doubles, it probably would have been a different story, but we gave up tiny leads in doubles at both #2 and #3. But most tellingly, Espana was up 4-0 in the third (and was also up in the second, but lost), but gave it all back to lose. And that was a truly great match. Both girls played at a very high level. Aguirre (UNF) just dug in mentally only a tad more, but that was enough. As the afternoon wore on, one could see the deflation in Yaser through his body language. I think he could sense it slowly ebbing away well before it finally did.

Men:

Men hold off a very game UNF team

Women:

UNF women were tougher at the margin

Those of you who are interested in ETSU sports - and I would guess that's almost all reading this, or you wouldn't be reading this - missed some epic tennis if you didn't witness these matches both Saturday and Sunday, but very especially Sunday. Good crowds, great atmosphere, palpable tension.

I did drive by it on Sunday, and there were more people in attendance than I expected. I wont be attending a tennis match, but am very glad that some people come out to support the team.