BU is kicking our butt!

They (Baylor) appear to be doing well, but they aren't kicking our butt. Let's see how the rest of the match skakes out.

Looking at the scoring, it appears to be a butt kicking.

At the time of the original post, there was no butts being kicked. Obviously, things have progressed since then in the butt kicking category. We could have a miracle come back, or not.

With 11 sets having been played in singles, we are 2-9, and headed further South. Not even competitive. We could easily lose the match 6-1.

Edit for update: It's over. Lost 12 of 14 singles sets, and got swept 0-6 in singles matches.

[This message has been edited by sharpdressedman (edited 4/11/2007 9:37p).]

I'm sorry. but it was plain to see we were in the process of seeing a butt kicking in Women's tennis we haven't seen at home in a long, long time.

Butt kicking complete. Lost all six singles matches. Can't remember when I saw something like that at home.....

All but one of the BU players' last names ends in "-ova." I love Kleinecke for not following the same tactics, but man that was a butt-kicking.

quote:

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I love Kleinecke for not following the same tactics

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+1. Just wish it didn't have to be that way

We're just a month removed from being beaten 6-0 at Vanderbilt (Lubinsky's match was not completed), and were beaten soundly by Notre Dame and Georgia early this season. Those three matches and this Baylor loss are the only blemishes in a solid 15-4 record. Those teams are currently ranked 2,6,15, and 17 (not in order).

Some of our better wins are against Colorado, Michigan, TCU, and LSU. Those teams are currently ranked 25, 29, 30, and 35 (again, not in order). There is a pretty big gap between the sweet 16-level teams and the next tier of teams, of which we are at the front of the pack. If you look at the rankings, it is pretty clear that the Baylors and Fresno States of the world probably wouldn't be near the top without loading up on European players, the "traditional" powers (Georgia, Florida, Stanford, et al.) manage to do it with rosters comprised mainly of American players (like ours).


First of all, kudos to Kleinecke for never failing to shy away from playing the big dogs. He could easily load up on safer teams. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best, and although unfortunately the outcome against Baylor did not show it, our team was much better prepared than if we had scheduled Sam Houston State and North Texas instead of some of the losses we have taken.

Many people on this board have questioned Kleinecke's coaching, which of course is the easy thing to do when a team fails to take that next step. The truth of the matter is that Kleinecke is a good coach, a good recruiter, and most importantly a first-class individual with impeccable character.

I believe that his shortcomings on the court have everything to do with his unwillingness to load up on foreign players. Whether this is because of pressure from administration or whether he is just not as adept as finding the foreign players, I couldn't say. What I can say is that A&M has everything it needs (strong academics, a first-class facility, name recognition) to be a tennis powerhouse, but we're never going to beat out Stanford and Georgia for the American girls until we build a little tradition of our own.

I don't know if that means doing more national recruiting to try to bring in some Californians like Cass used to do, or trying to add a few more Euros, but something is going to have to change for us to make it to that next level. This is a good season, but under our current m.o., it is the best result I can ever envision for the Aggies.

good assessment Harry, i think what it comes down to, the reason that we lost, was because our girls aren't or weren't as mentally tough as those baylor gals.

Atleast in the example of Elze and Clifford, i saw some amazing resilience in their opponents. They were EXTREMELY patient and they knew how to work the pace of the game to fit their styles. Granted clifford's opponent was a pusher, however once she beat clifford mentally she opened up a crap ton and started wailing and hitting some beautiful shots and she was very aggressive at the end. But just when it seemed like the girl was starting to play the aggressive style that Tiffany likes she'd mix up the pace with these high looping balls with a lot of top-spin, frustrating Tiffany even more and just mentally wearing her and the rest of us down.

I think where the matches were won, because NONE of our girls shows a willingness to hit approach shots and come to the net, was in baylor's ability to outlast us mentally by being patient and mixing up the pace by hitting slow high topspin shots, which wore us down, but also in their fantastic ability to consistently hit the ball deep which forced us back on our heels and let them be on the offensive. They were just too good mentally.

FT-
So did they beat us because they were tougher mentally or because they kept the ball in play longer and were more patient? Seems you cant decide which one it was.

From what I heard from people who were there, it was a COMBINATION of Gaylor being way more patient, and it seemed that we came out a little flat in the singles. Cant come out flat against a top team like that, they will jump all over it. Theres a reason they are ranked where they are. Joey prepares those girls. They wont roll over for you after doubles, they were hungry, we weren't.

Im just hoping we kick the crap out of tech this weekend. Living in Lubbock and teaching tennis and seeing those girls all the time, I would love a victory over them. Last year, I had one of the tech girls tell me that they were going to roll the Ags...Lost, 7-0, in Lubbock. Hope I can have a smile on my face again this year.

Gig 'Em!

I guess I got caught up in the hype for the Baylor match, and expected our team would be, at the least, very competitive, if not victorious. The result was a brutal spanking, administered on our home court. A loss like that will break many teams.

Exactly how many Zuzana's does bu have?

I agree FTAggies. It was a VERY disappointing and embarrassing loss (as Bobby said). We're sort of at a crossroads with tennis. It's a little like VB where we were so close for several years to really breaking into the Top 10 but never really could sustain ourselves as a Top Ten program. Eventually, you lose the momentum and someone else starts climbing up the ladder. We'll see how Steve and Bobby can recover this season and program.

They have 3 Zuzana's.