Texas Longhorns

You had them hitting program firsts, making the NCAA final.

You had some incredibly memorable matches for them, notably their run in the final site, two back-to-back 4-3 matches where they knocked off Texas A&M, Duke.

Emma Staker, third-set taker, taking both of those matches to help Oklahoma make history.

You had the happy feet on the sidelines, and all of this too was potentially overshadowed by the fact that their number three player, Anchisa Santia, departed-

Mm-hmm.

She had played lower in the lineup, she kinda disappeared from Florida team, and all of a sudden she works her way up to number one for this team.

Team didn't have Donna Guzman until the end of the year, and then they add in that late piece, and you're thinking, "Ooh, is this a ceiling rising moment for this group?" And look, I mean, again, them, North Carolina, Texas, little dose of Pepperdine as well, like there were some juggernauts in that 2022 season.

Obviously you have Navarro's Virginia team, you have NC State was really good that year, Duke with Beck and Drummy, they were really good that season.

But Brock Riker, you're sitting there at Penn State.

You took a chance on him in the transfer portal coming from Texas State.

He ain't it.

You've got to get him out of there.

they're they're importing all of these other things other than just tv and saying here's our tv ratings which is a lie.

And you might say, well, they're still getting views on these games, but they're not getting the views for the marketing dollars, right? They're lying to the marketers.

And it's one of the reasons why, again, ESPN's not making as much money as they think they are off these games because ESPN's putting 14 million, you know, viewers out there for the Ohio State and Texas game.

Guess what? That's not actually 14 million viewers on TV.

That's how she got to the quarterfinals to qualify, then the win over Ivanova in straights.

Three sets over now Texas junior Rosemarie Nykamp, and then again, the straight set win over Mimi Shu.

Now, you know, again, would've been great to see her knock out another member of the preseason top 10.

There wasn't-- Not all of the preseason top 10 were available to be competed against during the course of this All-American championships.

She doesn't win a set actually at this event and, you know, we saw her fight so hard against Tea Chavez in that NCAA quarterfinals.

You kind of had good vibes for Ziva Faulkner coming into this event, and we didn't see a ton at Pepperdine.

Now, I think Auburn and Texas A&M are losers of this event even if individual players aren't, although I was kind of expecting a bigger rise from Eva Esposito.

Like, the US Open might put a fire under her, but they only send Esposito and Bowers.

And also, this might be taking it a little too far, but it's giving not tough.

To win the NCAA team tournament, which everyone wants to do, you look at Texas A&M, they had to win back to back to back days after midnight, three straight days.

I find it really hard to believe that two players, your number one and your number two singles players are gonna look at a second singles match in a day and say, I can't do it.

That those are the type of players that are gonna show up day after day after day in the most stressful environment in the most unideal conditions like for as amazing of a tournament duke had and the breakout run that mimi shu had You could just not be the host tournament and pull this shit.

She qualifies for NCAAs in singles and doubles.

Your other doubles qualifiers, and to qualify in doubles, it's make the semifinal or win consolation.

So you have Perry and Johnson, Zampardo and Maltby, you have Nykamp and Herrera of Texas, and then you have Mew and Epps of Oklahoma.

And you have the Virginia duo of Katie Rolls and Martina Guinness-Salas.

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For a second, I didn't know if we were playing in Knoxville against the University of Tennessee or if we were playing down the road in Tennessee against Austin Peay.

I don't want this podcast to get a 15-yard penalty for taunting, so I'll just let this one go, leave my puns there, and just keep on moving and not drown in the metaphor.

A lot of, we'll just say, questionable celebrations on Saturday, but good to be celebrating in that when Texas goes into Knoxville and has to sweat it out late, but gets the win 20-17 over the Volunteers.

We'll have quite a bit of content for you talking about that today.