Friday, September 30, 2005

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (September 30, 2005)  -  The ETSU women's tennis returned to action this weekend playing at two separate tournaments at Virginia Tech and the University of Kentucky.  Both tournaments run through Sunday. 

"Overall we played pretty well, but it was tough to go against Kentucky in the first round," said head women's tennis coach Steve Brooks.  "We took away some good things today and are looking forward to the matches tomorrow."

At the University of Kentucky Invitational, ETSU faced some tough competition going up against ranked schools, including UK which at the end of last year was ranked fourth.  In A singles, Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) lost to Joelle Schwenk of UK, 6-2, 6-1 before defeating Ana Siljestrom of MTSU, 6-0, 6-3, in the consolation round.  Also in A singles, Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) lost to Julie Blackmore of OSU, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, before losing in the consolation round to Shannon Brown of Marshall, 5-7, 6-3,10-5. 

In B singles, Vita Moskaliova (Minsk, Belarus) lost to Danielle Ptrisko of UK, 7-6 (4), 7-5, before defeating Marlene Chemin of MTSU, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 10-7, in the consolation round.  In C singles, Tara Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) lost to Caroline Winebrenner of UK, 6-3, 6-2, before defeating Erin Gray of Auburn, 7-5, 6-3 in the consolation round.

In A doubles, Moskaliova/Ilina lost to Schmitt/Soor of Marshall, 8-6, and in B doubles Byrne/Batsula  lost to Cuadra/Akritas of the University of Illinois, 8-6. 

At the Virginia Tech Fall Invitational ETSU advanced  Saturday's action.  In B singles, Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) defeated Meredith Sketters of Davidson, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round and Abbey Walker of Virginia Tech, 6-4, 6-0, in the quarterfinals to advance to Saturday's semi-finals. 

In A singles, Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) defeated Lucia Kapisinska of Hampton, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, before falling in the next round to Ashley James of Virginia Tech, 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. 

Knight and Volobueva earned a bye in the first round of the doubles A bracket and play tomorrow in the quarterfinals against Kelly Fleck and Evin Prelec of Elon. 

Play continues tomorrow at both tournaments beginning at 9:00 a.m.  For more information on the Lady Bucs, visit www.etsubucs.com/wtennis .