losing wil and conor will hurt, but we've got a huge team with a lot of guys who can contribute all the way down the lineup. not sure if we really are a top 15 team yet, but we'll find out soon enough, as there are a bunch of legit teams on the schedule, both home and away. good luck to coach denton, coach mckinley, and all the guys.

also, the women start the season ranked 37.

[This message has been edited by road not taken (edited 1/6/2010 2:40p).]

It will be interesting to see who plays where in the line up. As far as the new guys, what are the expectations of them? Someone in the know have any idea?

I think that Krajcek, Dadamo, Klegou, Grigorov, Angus, and Lunt will be the starting single lineup, but Lewis and Hoover and Bautista are also fighting for spots. I do not see us taking a step back this year. The top 3 will still be able to compete against just about any top 3 and we have drastically improved depth at the bottom of the lineup with Lunt even possibly moving down from 5 to 6 line.

Has Wil popped up at another school yet? I assume it's official that he's not coming back...

I like our chances this year. I know I think that every year, but this bunch is deeper and in some ways more talented than we have had in a while. Hopefully our dubs will be improved, which should help our overall record considerably. I like our schedule.

I think Wil was taking a year off from school but I could be wrong.

Not sure if Angus will be top 6, I might put Lewis in there before him. Doubles should be the key to this team being top 15.

Lewis had a bad fall in tournaments and in practice. I would expect Lewis to be below Hoover and Bautista in singles

Agreed Raven. It's hard to replace a guy like Conor, and Wil always played well for us, but it will be nice to not have to rely on winning 1-4 singles every week to pull out matches.

How have the doubles pairs been coming together? Are they working it out, because it seems to me as though every single player will have a new doubles teammate this year.

All I know is both Dadamo-Krajicek and Grigi-Lunt put up some nice results this fall.

that's a bummer, hadn't heard about wil not playing this year.

http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings/2009-10_NCAA_Division_I_Men_s_Rankings/January_26__2010_-_ITA_DI_Men_s_National_Team_Rankings.htm

ags stay at 12. virtually no shakeups in the top 50 other than bama losing to northwestern and michigan losing to nc state.

quote:

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the women start the season ranked 37

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Solidly third-tier. Probably accurate.

How does old man kleniekce still have a job??? 37th not even top 25...lol

The women have a very good shot at finishing right around 25. They didn't lose a single player, but added the Mexican girl, who should compete at or near the top of the lineup.

They started to click a little at the end of the season, and while they're not going to contend for a NC or anything, I think they're underrated at 37.

The women have a tough schedule this year, with a lot of traveling. Coach K owes a lot of teams trips to their places, and this year is the year for almost all of them. They will find out early what they are made of, thats for sure.

Not losing anyone from last year and adding Nazari will help. Nazari should play #1 or 2 this year, which will be nice to have a little more depth at the top.

Being able to slot everyone down a spot will be a huge help, I think that Christie was often overmatched mentally at the #3.

Sheri is the player that I'm really excited to see how she comes out this year. She's big, strong, and intense, but really let small mistakes snowball. With a few little tweaks, and the experience of a college season under her belt, I think she can definitely be a very effective player for us at the 5/6 line.

The women have a brutal nonconference schedule. Actually it's a great nonconference schedule for a team that has the talent to finish in the top 15 or so, but I think this team is going to be only slightly better than last year...I'll guess a finish around 35.

The nonconference schedule:

Clemson #14
Illinois (probably) #32
LSU #28
San Diego #60
Fresno #15
UNLV #41
South Florida #43
TCU #27
SMU #22
Arkansas #18
Notre Dame #6

...and South Florida jumped from 75 to 43 after beating then #15 Miami last week, so they are no joke. This squad is going to lose to Baylor and t.u. with another conference loss in there somewhere to make it 8-3. I'm going to say 3-8 out of conference, 1-1 in the Big XII tournament and losing in the first round of the NCAAs to make it the first losing season for Kleinecke since 1993. I hope I'm wrong.

The men on the other hand look primed for a top-10 finish and have a bright future. Denton definitely has them headed in the right direction and is doing a spectacular job recruiting.

Men lose to Fresno 4-3...Not a great way to start the season.

What was wrong w/ Dadamo. Losing 2,1 at #3?!?

Losing their dubs match (Austin and Jeff) really seemed to affect Jeff. You could see that he lost focus a couple times during the pro set and played some loose points. It carried over into singles, and the guy he played just fed off of Jeff's errors and listlessness (for lack of a better word). Austin played a dangerous guy too, he just bounced back and re-focused a little better than Dadamo.

Klegou and Niall showed a lot of talent and heart in their matches. Their best matches are ahead of them, I believe.

In my opinion, we can find three singles victories against pretty much any team in the country. Four is a stretch though, so we absolutely need to get the doubles point in order to go into singles confidently against top teir teams.

Really looking forward to Krajicek vs Nedovyesov today.

Aggies down OSU 4-1. Came back to win the doubles; Austin closed out the match with a great two set victory at number one. Jeff won on three, won again at 6, and we were in the third sets on two and five; Klegu was probably going to lose on two; Griggy got beat at 5, and Nialls was up a hreak tt 3-1 on five. Probably would have been 5-2 if it had gone all the way. Good solid win. Typical A&M/OSU match.

Ags drop from 12 to 17. A win in the Texas Cup on Friday and we're right back on track. This is easily the strongest indoor team we've had in a while, so hopefully the guys come out of Houston with a top ten victory.

BTW, Fresno St. jumped from 46 to 26 with their wins over A&M and Rice.

men hold steady at 17 after a loss to top 10 texas and a win over tulsa on the road. the only real shake-up was virginia dropping from 2 to 6 and kentucky jumping from 14 to 10 after the wildcat's upset win.

Ags still holding at 17. Matches coming up against St. Ed's, TCU, and LSU this weekend.

today was the first computer ranking of the season and the ags are still at 17. tech jumped to 19, but other than that, the top 20 are virtually the same, just a few teams shuffling back and forth a couple spots.

krajicek is 16 and still undefeated, dadamo is 33, and they team up to be 9 in doubles.

Still unsure how to feel about this team. This next little stretch will show us a lot. It's funny, thus far the top of our lineup has played just as well as last year, and the bottom of our lineup is supposed to be where we were going to see a pretty big upgrade, and yet our rankings have slid.

I guess it was just a bad loss to Fresno, and haven't had a chance to move up yet.

I agree goblue. That Fresno loss really has had a lasting effect, but even if we had won, the questions you raise would still be there. We have added a bunch on new guys and I think they are just experiencing the growing pains of playing d-1 tennis. Obviously Jeff is an exception, but our results are still inconsistent.

Jeff is the exception because he played D-1 tennis before this year. The freshmen will be fine, they are going to peak at the right time...

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How does old man kleniekce still have a job??? 37th not even top 25...lol

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Because you don't hire and fire based on preseason rankings?

Last year they were 9-2 in conference and made the NCAAs. The year before that they were 9-2 as well and advanced a round in the NCAAs. Same thing in 2007 and 2006, etc..., etc...

As long as his teams are doing well in conference and winning in the NCAAs, he'll have a job.

That's true, but currently not looking too good at #47 halfway through the season. Tennis is not football: There aren't that many teams REALLY competing to be in the top 25. It's tough to look at the rankings and see schools like Rice and SMU ahead of us. We definitely have top 25 facilities, a top 25 tennis budget, and are in a state where there is a ton of tennis talent - probably the 3rd best state for tennis behind CA and FL.

Kleinecke still does a pretty good job and I don't think you should be so quick to want to throw him out with the garbage after 25 years of hard work and good results, but I AM disappointed that we are not better in women's tennis, especially seeing what a great job Tim Cass and now Denton have done with the men.

I won't comment on his all-time performance, but I'm certainly disappointed with how they've done this season. Elze, Morgan and Nazia are playing about as well as you could ask at the top. They're a combined 17-4 at the top 3 lines. We just haven't been able to close out wins.

None of their losses have been blowouts. 4-3, 4-2, 4-3, 4-3. Even against some very good teams (the first 4-3 was no. 14 Clemson). To me, the problem has been how much the lineup has been shuffled around. I understand wanting to find the right combination, but now is the point of the season where they need to settle down. I think if they get some consistency in the bottom half of their lineup, they can make a run at a tourny spot.

Hate to always sounds like a sunshine pumper about women's tennis, and I know what the numbers show, but the "eyeball test" still says they're really close to be around a #20 ranked team. They're just that close, both as a team and as individuals.

And I mean, I've tried to stay behind Bobby, but there's no way this team can be worse than last year. They lost not a soul, and they added a girl who's their best/second best player. How can that possibly result in a worse team, unless Bobby is not doing something right? I'll give him until the end of the season to turn around, I guess, but he needs to pick his lineup ASAP.

To me, this is Elze, Morgan, Nazia, Sheri (think her game matches up better higher in the lineup), Lauren, Stephanie.

BTW, have we heard anything else about Janelle? Is she grayshirting the season?

i'll be very impressed if the girls beat a team in the top 20.

[This message has been edited by road not taken (edited 3/4/2010 11:20p).]

[This message has been edited by bigfoot10s (edited 4/23/2010 8:17p).]

So which coaches on campus have a less impressive set of accomplishments than Coach K?
Finishing second or third in a very weak Big 12 year after year and losing in the second around after beating some Podunk U in the first is pretty underwhelming.

Corbelli. Until her run this year, they weren't that impressive over her years.