Thursday, May 20, 1999

Tennis and Baseball Ready to Tango

The men's tennis team is headed for Athens, Georgia, where they will compete against #1 ranked UCLA in the NCAA Sweet 16 this weekend.   Competition starts on Saturday the 22nd.

For the Hokies, who entered the tournament ranked 54th, it doesn't get much harder than a matchup against UCLA.  Compared to the Bruins, VCU and Alabama were cake walks.    This reminds me of the women's basketball team, which made its way to the Sweet 16, only to collide with top-ranked Tennessee.

A peek at the tennis rankings shows that UCLA puts up Tennessee-like numbers when it comes to the polls.

The Hokies will once again rely on senior Aaron Marchetti and sophomore Adam Marchetti to carry the load.  The brothers have both been ranked in the top 20 at times, and they also team up to form a doubles team with a record of 25-5.

So perhaps the Marchettis can win their respective singles matches, and maybe even a doubles match (assuming that they play one together), but someone else is going to have to step up, because NCAA tennis is a best-of-seven affair, and if you were counting, the Marchettis are only capable of winning three matches by themselves.

Meanwhile, the baseball team gets into action today as A-10 West #1 seed Tech meets A-10 East #2 seed Temple.  The baseball tournament is kind of interesting because only the top 2 seeds from each division get to play in it.   This means that there's only four teams there:  Tech, Temple, #2 West seed La Salle, and #1 East seed UMass.  The event is double-elimination, meaning that a team has to lose twice in order to be eliminated.

The Hokies play Temple at 4:05 this afternoon, and UMass and La Salle will play at night.  The second round will be played on Friday, and that will eliminate two teams.  The remaining teams, one of which will have a loss, will play for the championship beginning Saturday, at 1:05 in the afternoon.

As an addendum to my comments the other day, this year's champion will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, so the Hokies' task is clear-cut.  If they can bring home the A-10 trophy, they'll get to move on.

 

Tech Notes and HokieCentral Notes

  • Big East note:  as we ponder all-sports membership in the Big East, it's interesting to note that the Notre Dame men and woman have both captured the 1999 "Big East Commissioner's Cup."  The cup is the all-sports championship for the Big East conference, and there's one awarded for the men, and one for the women.   And get a load of this:  the Notre Dame women have won the last three cups, and the Notre Dame men have won the last four.  See what tradition and a fat football TV contract with NBC will get you?  Even with a lousy men's basketball team, you can dominate your conference.
  • The bleachers that are slated to be constructed in Lane Stadium's North end zone this summer will total 2100 seats, not the 4000-5000 previously reported.  The seats will be straight rows of bleachers that will not extend all the way to the East and West stands.  Later, the bleachers will be expanded further to take on a curved shape and reach all the way from one side to the other, but for now, the seats will look much like the rentals we've had the last few years for big games.
  • I have submitted new message board formats to Grassy for him to implement, and as soon as he can get to it, we'll have the new boards up.  To preview the new format, take a look here.
  • There's an interesting and humorous typo in A Note from Coach Beamer that is part of Virginia Tech's May Netletter.  Coach Beamer says:  "The 1999 season will be challenging. At Lane Stadium/Worsham Field we play perennial posers Syracuse, Miami, and Clemson."  I think the coach meant to say "powers," but you never know ... I just hope it doesn't land on a bulletin board somewhere.

          

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