Hoping we get some posts from those in attendance today and others folloowing the tourney, wish I could be there but have my son's HS graduation to attend. Hope we get a great atmosphere and can cheer the Ags to a great performance tonite.

My picks in Round of 16: Ole Miss, Georgia, Virginia, UCLA, Illinois, Florida, Pepperdine and baylor (Ags losing 4-2 putting up a good fight).

between finals and graduation i was extremely bored, and printed out a 64 bracket for men's and women's tennis and filled them out "big dance" style. i'm about to head out to the tennis center, but when i get back i'll let you know how i fared.

without looking at what i predicted a week and a half ago before the regionals, my expected winners for today are:

baylor (reverse psychology), pepperdine, florida, illinois, georgia, ole miss, ucla, uva. no upsets, and i don't expect many big surprises throughout the tournament. unless of course the ags go all ethnic cleansing on baylor tonite...then my pick is for the ags to win it all.

Boy, txag, I bet it's hot out there. Is the heat going to be a factor in this tourney? So far, everything is playing out according to form. Look forward to your report.

just stopped home to get some grub...it is BRUTAL out there. i'm on t-shirt #2 already, and i might be switching from shoes to flip flops when i head back out. last i heard it was 95 in the air, 105 in the bleachers, and 115 on the court. there was some cramping during the uw/uva match.

both of the matches on the stadium side have been competitive so far, with blowouts on the grandstand side. tech played damn good; i almost cheered for them a couple times. just not deep enough. both uva and ucla are deep as all hell, with 5 players on each time in the top 112. none of the guys out there seem to be especially dominant, everyone is just ridiculously solid.

currently fsu is making a strong statement against illinois in dubs. 5-5 on 1 and 2, up 4-1 on 3. probably gonna get out of the house again and catch the end of the point. usc florida is close early on as well, with each team being up a break on one court and on serve in the middle.

for the ags that are heading out later, bring water bottles. it is miserable out there, but the water fountains are actually really cold. though it looks like we might be starting a little late, the sun should still be out for an hour or so during our match, so bring sunscreen and maybe a bandana or towel for the back of your neck.

there are already some waco folks out there, so plan to get there early if you want a good seat. you must have a $12 armchair ticket to sit in the first 2 rows, and it's $8 for the bleachers ($5 for kids and A&M students).

time to get back out there...BTHO baylor.

update...

fsu has won #2 dubs and is currently up 2 breaks on 3.

gamecocks are up 4-1 on 1, and 3-3 on 2 and 3.

2 unseeded teams with big advantages early on...this could get interesting.

i'm out the door.

txag, maybe the heat is palying a factor, though no one could be prepared for this kind of weather, except maybe an Arizona St. I will be interested to see your eval of the Pepperdine team(which you may not see much of as they will be playing at same time as Ags). They destroyed us at their place and I saw them throttle SMU here in Dallas, they have a very good and prob underrated squad. Cheer those Ags home tonite to victory.

I'm off to the match. We are gonna win this one!

A&M is cruising at #1 doubles right now...tied at #2 doubles, and losing at #3 doubles.

Wow, easy win at #1 by the Ags over the #2 doubles team in the country. Will go down to the #2 court. Great start, but still up for grabs.

[This message has been edited by lsal (edited 5/21/2005 7:29p).]

A doubles point would be very nice. 2 and 3 are hanging in there.

We're down 7-5 on both courts.

Baylor takes the point. I don't see a realistic scenario where we can pull it out. I just want to see Jerry Take down Dorsch. Go Ags

baylor playing with a lot of confidence with the doubles point in hand, an uphill fight.

Doubt Jerry will get the opportunity to finish his match vs. Dorsch.

tough match.

I think after we lost the doubles it kind of took out the crowd. Also after our tie breakers in the 1st set I think we slowed down and the crowd was really out of it.

Good Season though.

too tired and sunburned to think and type right now...maybe tomorrow

The doubles point was heartbreaking. The win at court 1 was great, but then in what seemed like of a blink of an eye Baylor broke on both 2 and 3 to go up 7-5 (on court 3, immediately after we'd broken to get back on serve). It really felt like the entire match was over at that point.

I wish we'd have won one of the 3 first set tiebreakers in singles. Oh well, still have singles and doubles tournaments to look forward to.

"I feel like we have some unfinished business." - Chris Walker

On the bandwagon since birth. Raised in the bleachers of Kyle, Olsen, and G. Rollie White

Ags hung tough, but the only chance to beat the bears is to take the doubles point, even then you still have some hard work to do.
We should be much better next yr in singles and doubles, and with Becker and Dorsch finally gone, we will have a better chance to win the Big 12.
UVA lost the doubles point vs. UCLA so that should be a real dog fight. Watch Pepperdine, they have the type of squad that could beat Baylor.

UCLA takes down in UVA in a mild upset. UVA was a really good team.

i've always thought pepperdine was a good team, but they're nowhere near baylor. no one is. IMO, we had just as good a shot at beating them as anyone. we were probably the 12th or 13th most talented team in the tourney, but at least we knew their guys, we knew their tendencies, and we had the homecourt advantage and the fans. from now on, every baylor match will be a home match.

i haven't checked the live scoring yet, but i'm betting that baylor wins the doubles point, and then cruises with something like a 4-1 or 4-2 score.

[This message has been edited by txag731 (edited 5/22/2005 7:40p).]

baylor got the dubs point easily, and dorsch got a default after winning the first 6-2...doerner must have gotten hurt. becker won the first 6-3 and already has his break in the second, so you can pretty much close the book on that one.

now they just have to get one of the four left, which should be no problem. lars and zgaga choked away their seconds sets after dominating their firsts. kokta and shearer lost their first and are on serve late in their seconds. with blood in the water, at least one of these guys will step up in the 3rd, so i still stand by my 4-1 prediction. pepperdine might even get bageled like us.

like i said...if we didn't beat baylor, i doubt anyone will beat baylor.

on the other side, florida got the dubs point and first sets at 1,3, and 4. fsu took close first sets at the bottom, but florida already has a break early in the second at 6. the 2 spot is currently in a first set breaker.

i say florida wins 4-1. hope i'm wrong, as i am now a fan of the noles. they've got a lot of character, and played damn good tennis to knock off illinois.

i would still never wear one of their shirts.[/rolls eyes]

[This message has been edited by txag731 (edited 5/22/2005 7:42p).]

right on schedule, lars gets a break early and is up 4-1. kokta is stretching the second to a breaker at 4.

pepperdine might get on the board if their 6 can break shearer before lars closes out, as he is up 5-4. if shearer holds, i bet lars gets another break and hits 2 aces to complete the sweep.

seriously, i should probably stop typing. lars already got his break and is serving for the final 4 at 5-1.

before i can finish typing, lars serves it out. 4-0 baylor. i doubt they lose 3 more team points the rest of the way.

TxAg, I agree Baylor seems unbeatable, but UCLA might be their only poss. challenger.

the wheels came off for fsu, and they lose to florida 4-0. after losing 4 first sets, they dug their hole deeper by giving up 2 straight breaks when they had a chance to split at 3, and then getting rolled 6-1 in the second on 6 where they had their easiest first set.

2 bagels on the top half of the draw today. they've moved the start times back for the rest of the tourney, so tomorrow looks like this:

(1)baylor
(4)florida
6pm

(3)ole miss
(7)ucla
3pm

3 of the seeds make it thru, and an underrated (IMO) ucla team joins them in the final 4

texag731,

Who do you pick for the finals and to win it all?

baylor over florida (4-0 or 4-1)
ucla over ole miss (4-2 or 4-3)

baylor over ucla (4-1 or 4-2)

I went to the Saturday and Sunday sessions. In spite of the brutal heat the quality of play was great. I was surprised at how good UCLA was. Their number one is an excellent player. He's a lefty who really has a smooth almost effortless game. I thought we played good against Baylor but there was too much of a talent/experience difference. The Bears are simply loaded. I've only seen us play twice this year - here and at the BIg 12 tournament - so I may be off base but our team simply doesn't appear to play with much emotion this year. i thought they looked kind of flat against both OSU and Baylor. That being said Jerry M. seems to paly with a lot of desire and intensity. He is very good. If Lester Cook had returned I think would would have had a top five level team.
I thought the matches between FSU and Illinois,Duke-Pepperdine, and Ole Miss-UGA were particularly good.
The NCAA Team Tennis Championship is one of the most enjoyable sports events for me to watch and this year was certainly no disappointment.
Hats off to Coach Cass and Bill Byrne for putting together a first class event.

heading out there for tonite's match...thank God it's not 100 degrees anymore.

UCLA wins, and Fla giving Baylor a real fight, baylor taking doubles handily, but UF wins 3 of 6 1st sets. Baylor will win, but their toughest test to date. The match will UCLA should be even tighter.

Bears versus the Bruins. This will be a very interesting matchup. When you look at the individual player rankings,it sure looks like UCLA has stacked their lineup. Their only unranked player is playing at 4 and their fourth higest ranked player(85) is playing at six. I think whoever wins the doubles point wins 4-3. Slight edge to Ursus Waco.

I'm proud of my Gators. They made a nice run and gave Baylor a real fight tonight. But, Baylor is Baylor, they came through when it mattered. If Briceno at 4 wins that 2nd set tie break, who knows. Baylor-UCLA should be a real good one tomorrow. Whoever wins doubles should win the match, cause I don't see either team taking 4 singles.