Lady Ags beat Texas today and advance to the finals tomorrow. Yes, The Texas ladies are not going to win this BIG 12.

The men lost to Baylor, Khalid went to the restroom at 5-2 in the second and this enabled Lester to finish out his win over Dorsch.

Meanwhile OSU men's team just beat Texas 4-2, now that was a surprise and should help the Ags in the NCAA first round hosting.



[This message has been edited by Ags40luv (edited 4/26/2003 6:12p).]

First of all I want to congratulate Baylor for winning the men’s match at the Big XII today. They are finally off tennis probation (unlike last year), which means they will probably host a regional.

I also want to congratulate the Lady Aggies for their win today over Texas. They are co-champions of the Conference, and will be playing Ok State tomorrow for the Tournament championship. A great year for them.

On another thread a subject has been beat to death, so I thought I would put my thoughts here, and then end the discussion. The subject is the recruiting and age of Baylor’s men tennis players relative to A&M. Here are the facts, as taken from the official web sites of the two schools. To put it into proper perspective, I have focused only on the starting six for each team. This leaves out a senior for Baylor, Eddie Garcia, who has never played against A&M even though he has two letters and will likely letter again this year, and two freshmen. For A&M, this leaves off Cameron Fenner and our two red shirt freshmen.

For Baylor their starting team averages 22 years, one month. None of them ever went to a school in the States until they came to Baylor.

For Texas A&M, the average age is exactly 20 years, or more than two years younger than Baylor. Those two years of experience make a tremendous difference at this age level. All but one (Ante) went to school in the States before coming to the Aggies.

Here are the data, Fair and Balanced. I report, you decide.

Baylor Men’s Tennis

1st Team
Name Age Class Hometown/High School/College
1 Benedikt Dorsch 22.3 SO-TR Weiden, Germany/Ludwig-Maximilian
2 Zoltan Papp 23.7 SR-3L Budapest, Hungary/Brody Imre
3 Benjamin Becker 21.10 SO-1L Orscholz, Germany/Gymnasium Stefansberg
4 Matias Marin 21.3 JR-2L Rosario, Argentina/College Cristo Rey
5 Ivor Lovrak 20.10 FR-HS Zagreb, Croatia/Birotehnika
6 Reiner Neurohr 22.3 JR-2L Worms, Germany/Gauss Gymnasium
Average 22.1

Texas A&M Men’s Tennis

1st Team
Name Age Class Hometown/High School
1 Newport, Ryan 21.7 Sr-3L Houston, TX (Cy-Fair)
2 Cook, Lester 19.0 So-1L Sherman Oaks, CA (Laurel Springs)
3 Matijevic, Ante 19.8 So-1L Split, Croatia (Birotehnika-Zagreb)
4 El Dorry, Khaled 20.11 Jr-2L Cairo, Egypt (New Braunfels [TX] HS)
5 Loucks, Matt 19.8 Fr-HS Irvine, CA (Spirit Prep)
6 Nallon, John 18.11 Fr-HS Garland, TX (North Garland)
Average 20.0




[This message has been edited by Joe 53 (edited 4/27/2003 1:08p).]

way to lose to osu 4-2 in the semis tsips! and what's with simon playing 1 and zarhi playing 2? i thought simon was "hurt" and having a "down season"... rocket, why didn't t.u. stack to win at 2 like they did against us?

Good analysis Joe, and when you look at the number of years several of the Baylor players have played on the pro tour in their native countries, it widens the experience gap even farther. Because of the social requirements for attending school, and the school disrict requirements for attending if the players in the US are serious about playing tennis, they have to quit high shcool, get private tutors and tour the US and the ITF circuit, play challengers and basically put education on the back burner. Then this path requires financial support the vast majority of our athletes can not enjoy unless the family is already very wealthy. At least the ITF has started to hold tournaments in the US that enables some of our rising tennis players exposure to international play without significant travel expenses. With fewer and fewer opportunities for US players to play for a college in the US, this further erodes the interest and opportunities for US players.

Many comments on this forum say we need more foriegn players to compete in college tennis. What happened to made in the USA? The real problem is the USTA, ITA, NCAA providing the opportunity to erode our own player development and take away opportunities for our native sons and daugthers.

[This message has been edited by Ags40luv (edited 4/27/2003 10:17a).]

crap, we just lost the doubles point.

carmatic retribution