DUBulldog
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Tennis team to open the season at North Carolina, who was ranked 3rd in the nation this season. linkage
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zman2
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Super tough bracket. The 3 teams besides Drake are all top 25 teams, with NC being in the national championship this year. Dogs aren't going to beat Carolina, but if they could grab the second match it would certainly be a quality win. Wish the basketball team could play a schedule like this and be somewhat competitive!
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zman2
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So now Valpo has joined the Summit league in tennis. 22-3 last year, didn't play near the schedule Drake did this year but looked to have a real solid team. Think their top 2 players are leaving this year though. Won their league this year and lost to Michigan 4-0, but had some close matches that didn't finish, similar to us and Illinois. I still think we will be very good this year w/the whole team returning and hopefully Gillespie can make a run at the NCAA tourney next year as an individual.
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zman2
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Nice win for Vinnie Gillespie today out in California. Advances to round of 16 where he will play a guy from Cal-Berkeley. I know it's a non revenue sport and nobody really cares besides tennis and myself, but at least we are a national program in 1 sport!
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Drakey
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i'm interested in any success.
Drakey
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zman2
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Vinnie lost a tough one today. Still think he could actually win a round or 2 if he could qualify for the tournament.
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TennisDog2013
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They just released their schedule and WOW! HOLY HELL! This has to be the toughest one yet. http://godrakebulldogs.com/schedule.aspx?path=mtenCheck this out, with my hunch on where the team will be during the season. Mostly based off of what the teams did last year, I haven't done extensive research on all of these teams or nothin' UNC (top 5 team) Michigan or South Carolina (top 25 teams) Michigan State (not amazing, but known Power 5 name) New Mexico (top 100) Iowa (not amazing, but known Power 5 name) Arizona (not amazing, but known Power 5 name) Denver (not amazing, but good tennis program) Minnesota (top 50) Penn (top 100) Indiana (not amazing, but known Power 5 name) Purdue (top 50) Tulsa (top 25, great tennis program) Oklahoma (top 10, amazing tennis program) Florida State (top 25) Oregon (top 25) Middle Tennessee (top 100, coached by former Drake coach Jimmy Borendame) Wichita (top 75) Nebraska (not amazing, but known Power 5 name) This is exactly how you schedule when you know you have a lot of seasoned upperclassmen. No better time to load up your schedule. If they can beat everyone they should beat and sneak out some wins over people I labeled as top 25 or better... they can get into the top 25 for sure. Their trip to Oklahoma is gonna be brutal. Playing Tulsa and Oral Roberts in the same day and then Oklahoma the day after. I say pick your battles on that one, make sure you beat Tulsa and ORU. A loss to Oklahoma won't look bad, a loss to ORU would.
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zman2
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Tennis, no Bayo in the lineup. Yesterday or today. Still on the team? He was a good doubles player.
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TennisDog2013
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+xTennis, no Bayo in the lineup. Yesterday or today. Still on the team? He was a good doubles player. I was wondering the same thing. But he has been a bit injury prone. Him and Ben Stride looked to be playing at less than 100% for much of last year. Both are still on the roster online, so I'm just guessing it was getting the new guys some playing time before we start playing the nationally ranked teams. All three of those matches should have been easy wins, so good time to get young guns some playing time. (The Western Michigan game was TOOOOO close) If Bayo and Stride are good to go for this weekend's ITA Kickoff matches, I'd like our chances to get one win (ain't beating UNC). If they aren't... we'll have a learning experience.
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TennisDog2013
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Assuming Calum, Ben Stride and Bayo must be injured or something because they aren't playing against UNC right now. Looking back on the fall, Stride and Bayo didn't play at all then either. Odd. Wouldn't be in match shape now anyway I'm guessing.
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TennisDog2013
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+xAssuming Calum, Ben Stride and Bayo must be injured or something because they aren't playing against UNC right now. Looking back on the fall, Stride and Bayo didn't play at all then either. Odd. Wouldn't be in match shape now anyway I'm guessing. Yup, they're injured. From the GoDrakeBulldogs site "This team is continuing to learn and establish themselves after losing three of our top players to injury." Damn. Was really excited about pulling some upsets this year, but without those three... Yikes. Could be a rough year.
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TennisDog2013
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Lost to both Michigan State and New Mexico 3-4. I still think this team is good enough to get to the NCAA tournament via the Summit automatic bid... But damn our record may be ugly when we get there.
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zman2
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Both super tough matches, kind of surprised Vinny lost to the Michigan State guy. New Mexico is a better team than Michigan State, and we could have won that as well, but can't win the darn doubles point. Our younger new guys are getting thrown into the fire right away, as it sounds like they were planning on redshirting before the season started but couldn't. Agree about the NCAA tourney, but the Summit League tournament is in Denver this year and they always have a pretty good team. Going to be tough to beat them there, which will be our only option to get into the tournament.
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DUBulldog
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Bulldogs swept UAB and George Washington today link
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TennisDog2013
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Beating Denver today 5-2 is a good sign today. Going to need to beat Denver at their place in the conference tourney if we want into the tourney. It's funny, even when we are below my tennis expectations, we are great by Drake expectations. I'll be at the Minnesota match next Friday. Minnesota has a really good team so it'll be a difficult match, but we'll be in it.
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zman2
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Don't quite have the firepower as we maybe thought going into the season, but obviously our new guys are pretty damn solid, even though they planned on redshirting. Looks like it will come down to us beating Denver there in the conference tourney to get in. Seem to be playing pretty well right now, but schedule gets really difficult, go on the road for about a month now!
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TennisDog2013
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Ranked #49 this week. New Mexico, who we lost to 3-4, is #48. Western Michigan, who we beat 4-3, is #31.
Really wish we could have pulled out the matches against Sparty and New Mexico, probably could have been in the Top 40. But a good chance again this Friday, as the Gophers are #41. Other teams that are ranked now that we have on the schedule and a chance of beating: Old Dominion (46), Oklahoma (maybe, ranked 29 which is about 20 spots lower than where I'd expect that program). A number of the Power 5 teams we have on our schedule have a good chance of going up in the rankings because while we have to play teams like UMKC, Valpo and Illinois State in the Summit, they'll have chances to play ranked schools.
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TennisDog2013
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Just got back from watching us get worked by Minnesota. 0-7. Had a chance to take the doubles point, but after that nobody could get any traction. Let's break it down, because why not. Vinny just couldn't get it going today. The guy he played was good, but not 6-1 6-0 over Vinny good. Tom Hands just didn't have the firepower to match Gopher guy who was just unloading on the ball. Tom still has the smoothest backhand I've seen from a Bulldog. It doesn't hit bombs, but it is pretty to watch. Barny looked to have the best chance to win. Kid can really crush the ball. Serving let him down in spots. Ben Clark may be the guy who gets screwed over the most with Calum and Ben Stride out for the season. Tough ask to win consistently at 4 for him. Didn't watch much of freshman Finley Hall at #5. But he won a set, which is more than anyone else could say. Didn't catch any of freshman Freddie Powell at #6 but he lost 0-6, 1-6. BUT he keeps the Drake tradition of having an English guy with a one-handed backhand going so... that's something!
Gophers are a good team, but I'll never like them because their coach clearly thinks they are too good to travel to Des Moines.
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zman2
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Vinny lost 0 and 1 ? Damn. We got a beatdown tonight.
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zman2
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Tennis, did you go today? Tried to follow but the site showed a couple of different things. I think we won but not sure. Nothing on twitter either.
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