Thursday, April 19, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 19, 2007) - The ETSU women's tennis team will look to defend their Atlantic Sun title this weekend during the General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament at the ETSU Tennis Center. The Lady Bucs (15-9, 8-1), enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed with their only conference loss coming on March 21 as a 4-3 defeat to top-seeded Jacksonville.

The 2007 A-Sun Tournament will mark the second postseason appearance for ETSU as members of the Atlantic Sun. The Lady Bucs are set to face No. 7 Mercer on Friday, April 20 at 9 a.m. ETSU faced Mercer earlier this season, sweeping them, 7-0. The first round match-up will be played at Milligan College.

Should the Lady Bucs advance to the semi-finals they will take on either No. 3 Stetson or No. 6 Gardner Webb. ETSU has already faced both teams this season defeating Stetson, 5-2 on March 9 and Gardner Webb, 7-0 on March 27.

On Thursday night's conference banquet five Lady Bucs were honored by the A-Sun office. Senior Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) and freshman Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) were both named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference First Team, with Stupak also being named to the All-Freshman Team. Juniors Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) and Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) and sophomore Tara Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) were named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference Second Team.

Results from the General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament can be found at www.ETSUBucs.com or www.atlanticsun.org.