Saturday, October 13, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 13, 2007) - The ETSU women's tennis team wrapped up competition at the USAFA Invitational Saturday afternoon. The two-day tournament hosted by the Air Force Academy fielded teams from nine different teams.

Competing in the Flight 1 bracket Tara Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) fell to No. 115 Samantha Van Der Drift of Texas Tech, 6-2, 6-1 in the championship match. She finishes the weekend with a 2-1 record and a second place finish.

In the Flight 2 draw Whitney Trotter (Guadalajara, Mexico) fell to Air Force's Christine Abayan, 6-0, 6-4. Trotter finishes the weekend with a fourth place finish.

In doubles Byrne and Trotter defeated Denver's Kaja Smole and Bhavani Tirumurti, 8-5 before falling to Caitlin Fluegge and Anette Pohjalainen of Colorado State in a tight, 9-7 match. They finish sixth in the Flight 2 bracket.

"Overall this was a good tournament. Tara had a good win over a ranked opponent yesterday and unfortunately just couldn't pull out another one today. Her opponent was very experienced and just never let Tara get going. Whitney also played well and was really close to taking the match to three sets. In doubles they just haven't played enough as a team to close out that match against Colorado State. But overall I'm very pleased with their play," said head coach Steve Brooks.