Tennis Embarks On First Road Trip

untbowler · February 1, 2007

Good article for the ladies. I think it will be a long season unfortunately due to the cupboard being bare when Lama arrived:

“This season we are a little short-handed,” said Lama. “When I came here, we had five scholarship athletes that were available. Two out of those five had injuries. One is a season-ending and the other is coming off a stress fracture.”

Unfortunately this might be a throw away year and wait until his 3 prized recruits come in next fall, also I believe he will have one more scholarship available for next year.

Good luck this weekend against ULL, SE La, USM

untbowler · February 3, 2007

Team was swept by ULL 7-0

ULL Sweep

CMJ · February 3, 2007

Tough that we didn't even take a set.

MeanGreenBuzz · February 3, 2007

Tough that we didn't even take a set.

I think thats 2 straight sweeps...

CMJ · February 3, 2007

I know we lost all of our matches in our first matchup...but did we get straight setted in all those too? Yikes!

untbowler · February 4, 2007

USM sweeps UNT

What a long season it shall be.

untbowler · February 4, 2007

Another sweep for the bad guys

Lost to SE Louisiana.

Very nice doubles win at #1 for Megan and Aziza, also saw Sara Giles was back in the line-up playing doubles, hopefully she can get back in form.

Keep your heads up ladies

Edited February 4, 2007 by untbowler

GrandGreen · February 4, 2007

Southeastern La squad for those debating use of foreign players

Emilija Arnaudovska JR 5-7 2L Skopje, Macedonia

Maja Bradonjic JR 5-6 2L Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

Aleksandra Coric FR 5-5 HS Serbia

Nina Knavs JR 5-8 2L Ljubljana, Slovenia

Breda Kovac JR 5-11 2L Ljubljana, Slovenia

Bonnie Phillips JR 5-7 2L Mount Maunganui, N.Z.

Jana Simurkova JR 5-10 2L Trencin, Slovac Republic

Iva Velkovska SO 5-8 1L Skopje, Macedonia

untbowler · February 4, 2007

Southeastern La squad for those debating use of foreign players
Emilija Arnaudovska JR 5-7 2L Skopje, Macedonia
Maja Bradonjic JR 5-6 2L Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Aleksandra Coric FR 5-5 HS Serbia
Nina Knavs JR 5-8 2L Ljubljana, Slovenia
Breda Kovac JR 5-11 2L Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bonnie Phillips JR 5-7 2L Mount Maunganui, N.Z.
Jana Simurkova JR 5-10 2L Trencin, Slovac Republic
Iva Velkovska SO 5-8 1L Skopje, Macedonia

They are extreme cases. Much like Troy, UALR, ASU, FIU, ULL.

I am all for a rule to be maybe a 4/4 scholarship limit.

There are not enough American players to be competitive right now in D1.

centex eagle · February 4, 2007

4-4 split should be the least-I think you can find girls to play three on down and sometimes get lucky and develop a one or two. I think coaches have to decide to recruit as hard as the basketball and football people with their cunning ,tenacity and enthusiasm. Who care if the teams are not quite as good overall. You would gain more American parent support for your universities in all aspects of their athletic programs. They go to football and basketball games as they visit their daughters. What percent of foreign parents are going to support the university with money or going to events after graduation? -- VERY FEW!

greenster · February 5, 2007

4-4 split should be the least-I think you can find girls to play three on down and sometimes get lucky and develop a one or two. I think coaches have to decide to recruit as hard as the basketball and football people with their cunning ,tenacity and enthusiasm. Who care if the teams are not quite as good overall. You would gain more American parent support for your universities in all aspects of their athletic programs. They go to football and basketball games as they visit their daughters. What percent of foreign parents are going to support the university with money or going to events after graduation? -- VERY FEW!

Very good point. I still believe the coaches take the foreigners because the coaches are lazy and don't want to put the effort into recruiting americans. You don't have to organize recruiting trips. The foreigners are waiting by the phone, waiting for the american coachs to call.

The discouaging side of all these sweeps is that at his last job coach Sue inherited a strong team and slowly took it down hill until he was out. Tough to go much further down hill here. I wonder if a division 1 team has ever failed to score throughout a season?

untbowler · February 5, 2007

Very good point. I still believe the coaches take the foreigners because the coaches are lazy and don't want to put the effort into recruiting americans. You don't have to organize recruiting trips. The foreigners are waiting by the phone, waiting for the american coachs to call.
The discouaging side of all these sweeps is that at his last job coach Sue inherited a strong team and slowly took it down hill until he was out. Tough to go much further down hill here. I wonder if a division 1 team has ever failed to score throughout a season?

If you have never coached Tennis then I guess that is an easy way out to blame everything on the coach being lazy. The reality is there are not enough competitve American players to go around for all of the schools to be overly competitive. Also Foreign Players send in videos and ranking information just like American players so the coaches get just as many videos of local and foreign players as well as going out to Memphis to catch National Clays and San Jose to catch National Hardcourts. I guess the V-Ball coach is lazy when she brought in foreign players. It is easier to criticize I guess.

Lama will be good for the program and will eventually lead the team into the top 75 if not Top 50 which UNT has never seen.

BTW he really did make the team worse. He resigned when Illinois was #70. High rank of #17 with most rankings in the 30-40 range.

Wish UNT could have that problem.

Edited February 5, 2007 by untbowler

GrandGreen · February 10, 2007

What a thread. Not sure what difference it makes how Lama got here, but the timing of the change at Illinois proves absolutely nothing. As long as we are speculating , are you sure Lama did not resign and wait for Illinois to get a new coach before leaving. To blame Lama for this year's record is in a word crazy and I can't believe anyone without strong ties to the old coach could believe that the new staff is not a substantial upgrade for the program. As far as interpreting the sports news off the official website, most would realize that everything is reported with the greatest possible positive slant for all sports.

untbowler · February 10, 2007

Coach Lama is also very nice, I have e-mailed him twice and he has always responded in a timely fashion. He is a great addition to staff and we should be fortunate to have him. Hopefully more will come out and support the ladies this season as they greatly need positive support out side of the coaches. I hope to catch the UALR match in between officiating the Polar Bear tournament on March 10th.

untbowler · February 10, 2007

Team fell to UH on Friday 7-0 Nice #1 Doubles win for Aziza and Megan, also nearly pulled off Line #3 doubles. Franca went three sets in Singles. UH is typically a very good team. UNT plays SHSU today in Huntsville.