Saturday, April 23, 2005

CHARLESTON, S.C. (April 23, 2005) - The fourth seeded East Tennessee State University women's tennis team fell to top seeded Furman by a score of 4-1 Saturday morning at the Earle Tennis Center on The Citadel campus. While the score was 4-1, the battle between the two rivals lasted four and a half hours.

            The Bucs began the battle with the Paladins by capturing the doubles point. Furman's Caroline Bentley and Mary Neill Hagood made the first move with an 8-1 win at No. 1 over ETSU's Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Sylwia Ziolkowska (Warsaw, Poland). Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) and Gemma Halim (Jakarta, Indonesia) then won the No. 3 (8-5) over Shannon Moore and Lisa Bornt-Davis slot forcing completion of the third match. At No. 2, Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) and Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) faced Furman's Marti Morris and Lauren Osborne with the Bucs emerging as the victor in the 9-8 (7-4) decision.  

            In singles action, Furman would pick up four wins in hard-fought battles to decide the match at 4-1.

            "I thought by the way we fought in doubles, that today was our day," stated head coach Steve Brooks. "When it came down to the last three on the court I thought we were going to tough it out. Elena was up a set and battling hard, Olya was starting to get in the zone and Sylwia went up 4-2. I give credit to Shannon Moore because she fought hard and she got up 5-4 knowing there was going to be a ball change and with the new ball she served out the match." 

            The Bucs, who finished the regular season tied for second with an 8-2 SoCon record ends the season 19-7 overall, while the Paladins will face Davidson in the finals on Sunday.        .  

East Tennessee State 1, Furman 4       

Doubles

1.  Bentley/Hagood (FUR) d. Ilina/Ziolkowska (ETSU) 8-1

2.  Volobueva/Knight (ETSU) d. Morris/Osborne (FUR) 9-8 (7-4)

3.  Batsula/Halim (ETSU) d. Moore/Lisa Bornt-Davis (FUR) 8-5

Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2

Singles

1. Mary Neill Hagood (FUR) d. Sandie Knight (ETSU) 6-1, 6-1

2. Caroline Bentley (FUR) d. Masha Ilina (ETSU) 7-5, 6-0

3. Shannon Moore (FUR) d. Sylwia Ziolkowska (ETSU) 6-3, 7-5

4. Olya Batsula (ETSU) vs. Jacqueline Eckert (FUR) DNF

5. Elena Volobueva (ETSU) vs. Marti Morris (FUR) DNF

6. Lauren Osborne (FUR) d. Gemma Halim (ETSU) 6-1, 6-2

Order of Finish: 6, 2, 1, 3*

* - Clinching point