Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Senior Belgian leads ETSU back into national spotlight

MACON, Ga. (March 28, 2012) – For the second time this season, ETSU men’s tennis senior Sander Gille (Kuringen, Belgium) was named Atlantic Sun Player of the Week, the league office announced on Wednesday.

Having also been honored the week of Feb. 15, Gille becomes the third Buccaneer in three years to earn the honor multiple times in the same season. In 2010, Grega Teraz was named the week of Feb. 10 and March 10, and in 2011 current Buccaneer Jesus Bandres (Caracas, Venzuela) was honored the week of March 2 and March 30. The Kuringen, Belgium native also captured ETSU’s fourth such honor of the season with Jeremy Bonnevalle (Keerbergen, Belgium) having been selected last week (March 21) and Robin Akser (Ornskoldsvik, Sweden) the week of Feb. 29.

Gille went a combined 4-0 this past weekend with a 2-0 singles record and a 2-0 doubles record against then-No. 71 Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast. In doing so, Gille improved his overall singles record to 14-8, 8-5 dual, helped push the Bucs' winning streak to six in a row and helped ETSU regain a national ranking of No. 72.

On Friday against Stetson, Gille teamed with Akser in doubles play for the sixth-consecutive match and took down Njal Stene and Hans Adrian Riseng 8-3. In singles action, Gille met with Stene at the No. 2 and won in dominating fashion, 6-1, 6-3, as the Bucs rolled by the Hatters 5-0.

On Saturday against Florida Gulf Coast, Gille continued to impress. Switching doubles partners, Gille teamed with sophomore Roger Ordeig (Gurb, Spain) at the No. 1 to defeat Matthew Rock and Lance Lvovsky 8-4. In singles, Gille put together another dominating performance with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Jackson Moore at the No. 2 as the Bucs improved to 4-0 in A-Sun play with a 7-0 sweep of the Eagles.

For more information ETSU tennis, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the tennis links. 

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