Just general life responsibilities and struggles have left me unable to closely follow the day-to-day, or even week-to-week events this season - much less report on them. Sorry about that.

But....................both teams won the regular season, and the conference tournaments start tomorrow at the Champions Club in Chatt-town again. Both teams play Sparty in the first round.

MEN: started out *very* slowly, and lost to teams they had no business losing to, like UNC-A, Elon, Stetson, and Gardner-Webb (have ANY of those ever happened?? - I think not!!!). (Altho the Hatters were ranked this year.)

But..........come March, they've been winning, going undefeated in conference (like they're supposed to). However............they only edged El Cid 4-3 in the last match, which is............to put it bluntly.........somewhat embarrassing. ETSU has NEVER lost to El Cid, in a *whole* lot of matches. So.........one must conclude, a weaker team than usual. So, even if they should be fortunate enough to win the tournament again, they'll be a 4 regional seed, against a very tough opponent.
============================================

WOMEN: a much better story, and they are nationally-ranked at 64th. (I think they were ranked as high as 57th at one point, altho national rankings are very squirrelly down in that range.) They defeated perennial nemesis Furple 4-3 in the final regular season match in a VERY VERY VERY nail-biting final match. The ETSU story-writing flunkies say this is their first SoCon regular-season championship. Altho I don't have the time to go back and research, I wonder about that, as I think in the '80s, under Yasser, they won 1 or 2. *Just from memory* - so don't quote me. Early in the season, they played UK, Clemson, and Va. Tech all on the road, and all *very* close, esp. the Clemson tussle. That and the UK matches could easily have gone either way.
Against highly-ranked UT and NC St., they got clobbered as expected, winning no sets against UT, and only 1 against the Wolfpack.
So.............much higher expectations with them.

If you live anywhere near Chatt-town, the facility there is top-notch, and a great place to watch high-level college tennis. Go Bucs!

Girls won 4-0, as expected. Guys are underway, but the stats are all messed up, so can't tell.....

Guys also won 4-0, despite (gasp) losing one of the doubles sets. They play Chatt tomorrow afternoon. Barely beat them in regular season, so could be tough. Girls play da Bears at noon. That one also should be no problem.

Girls muzzle da Bearz 4-1. Teodora Ristic easily won at #1 for Mercer, but the rest of the matches were sorta pedestrian. Ristic lost a narrow match to our Sofia Markova in the regular season, but thrashed her today, 0 and 3.

Guys starting vs. Chatt now........

[update: we were in danger of losing the doubles point. Lost 1; won 1; finally eked out the third one 6-4 on a service break. For some reason, they're only playing one regular set instead of a pro-set. If we had lost the doubles point, it would have looked dark.....]

[further update: Looking pretty good (so far) in 3 of the singles matches; the other 3 are close.....]

[further update: We're 4-1 in first sets so far, so looking pretty good, altho far from a "done deal"]

Bucs win, 4-0, but it was closer than that. Badra won handily at #1, and then it took awhile, but eventually Lamas at #5 and Kalocsai at #3 finally subdued their opponents. The other two matches were very much in doubt - sort of even.

Both finals tomorrow at 1. Girls play dreaded Furple again. Guys will play Sammie-Furple winner - which should be a pretty even match.

They've put off the guys start for a bit - maybe 2; maybe 3:30, depending on which source one believes.

For the wimmens................Furple won doubles. Singles is an utter dogfight (catfight?). No clear leader at the moment, altho Bucs holding their own.....

[update: Markova has split sets at #1 with Sara Snyder. In the others, ETSU has won 4 first sets, and lost 1, but Paladins fighting back strongly in the matches in which they lost the first sets. Anybody's match...........]

[further update: Fernanda Carvajal has won at #2, and Ralitsa Alexandrova has edged a win at #6, to put Bucs up 2-1, but the others are absolutely dog/catfights.]

[further update: Alessandra Caceras eked out a win at #5, and then Daniela Rivera held on at #3 to end it, 4-1. The other two matches were in third-set tiebreakers, so it could have gone either way 'til near the end. CONGRATS BUCS!!!!]

FOR THE GUYS...................playing Sammie.............

Bucs won doubles point, thankfully. Badra looks comfortably up in the first set at #1, but the rest are all too early to even think of an outcome. Nobody else on either side is a clear leader.

[update: Badra and Lucas Britez (#6) won first sets; Peter Kalocsai (#3) lost first set. The others are tight.......]

[further update: Francisco Lamas at #5 has also won his first set, but Milledge Cossu at #2 lost his. Absolutely still anybody's match.........]

[further update: Pedro Cressoni at #4 has also lost his first set -- annnddd.......Badra and Kalocsai are both down a break in their second sets. Yikes. Could get pretty dicey....]

[yet further update: Cossu has lost at #2, to make it 1-1. Badra is in serious danger of splitting. Kalocsai did split, and is up a break in the third. We are leading at #s 5 and 6, but they're tenuous.]

Britez has triumphed at #6, and Peter Kalocsai wiped the court with the Sammie opponent in his third set, 6-0(!), to win. So that makes it 3-1. Need one more.......but all 3 remaining ongoing matches are truly in doubt. Very much could still lose this.

[update: Lamas split, but Badra is up TWO breaks in the third, so looks like he may be the one who comes through.]

[final(?) edit: And Dmitri Badra prevails 6-0 in the third. CONGRATS!!! Bucs win again!
Wonder if Sammie has put a bit of their financial wherewithal towards tennis?]

Will try to get to golf later - but making no promises.

(04-20-2024 03:31 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Britez has triumphed at #6, and Peter Kalocsai wiped the court with the Sammie opponent in his third set, 6-0(!), to win. So that makes it 3-1. Need one more.......but all 3 remaining ongoing matches are truly in doubt. Very much could still lose this.

[update: Lamas split, but Badra is up TWO breaks in the third, so looks like he may be the one who comes through.]

[final(?) edit: And Dmitri Badra prevails 6-0 in the third. CONGRATS!!! Bucs win again!
Wonder if Sammie has put a bit of their financial wherewithal towards tennis?]

Will try to get to golf later - but making no promises.

Thanks for the updates! Go Bucs!

Champs! Awesome job by both teams to win the title!

Recaps:
Men - https://etsubucs.com/news/2024/4/20/mens...urday.aspx
Women - https://etsubucs.com/news/2024/4/20/wome...title.aspx

Sorry, again I don't have time to post much, but the guys play UT Friday in K-town, at 1 PM and the girls play Duke the next morning, also down there, at 10 AM(?).
UT is ranked 7th nationally, and deserve every bit of it. As noted earlier, the Bucs lost matches early in the Spring they had no business losing, and thus are saddled with a very tough #4 regional seed. To be very frank.........and hope I'm wrong, they'll be fortunate to win a set or two or three.

For the girls, a *much* more manageable task, as they've earned a regional #3 seed. Although the Dookies have 5 (FIVE!) nationally-ranked players, none of them are like top 40 or 50 or so. Duke certainly favored, but this will be the best chance for the girls to win a first NCAA match since back in the ASun days, if even then. Still, don't be too optimistic; but I would not be shocked beyond belief with an upset. I suspect they'll at least be competitive in some matches. If they lose the doubles first, tho, it'll be very likely too much of a hill to climb. Win the doubles, and it could get very interesting. [As a reminder..............ETSU has traditionally sucked mightily in doubles, both teams, altho they seem to have improved a *little* the last couple of years.]