JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 5, 2008) - The No. 46 Bucs tennis team breezed past Gardner-Webb, 7-0 on Saturday afternoon. With the victory the Bucs improve to 19-3 on the year and 9-0 in conference play and clinch the top seed for the upcoming Atlantic Sun tournament, while the Bulldogs fall to 12-11, 4-5.

The Bucs swept all three doubles matches to take the 1-0 advantage. In the No. 1 position Alex Ahlgren (Tyreso, Sweden) and Lisandro Picardo (Mar del Plata, Argentina) defeated Ryan Bernthal and Jamie Lawlor, 8-2 while Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Colombia) and Oscar Posada (Valencia, Venezuela) cruised past Joshua Ray and Grant VanRensburg, 8-3 in the second position. Competing in the No. 3 slot the duo of Predrag Burmazovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Matej Zlatkovic (Ljubljana, Slovenia) completed the sweep for the Bucs defeating Taylor Ferrier and Carlos Quijano, 8-4.

ETSU then stormed through all six singles matches to earn the 7-0 victory. In the No. 1 slot Sebastian Serrano (Cartagena, Colombia) defeated Carlos Quijano, 6-3, 6-0 while Oscar Posada dropped Taylor Ferrier, 6-3, 6-0 in the No. 2 position. In the No. 3 slot Alex Ahlgren breezed by Grant VanRensburg, 6-4, 6-2 while Matej Zlatkovic cruised past Jamie Lawlor, 6-0, 6-4 in the fourth position. In the No. 5 slot Sergio Velez (Medellin, Colombia) defeated Joshua Ray, 6-0, 6-1 while Jason Ramski (Chicago, Ill.) defeated Ryan Bernthal in the sixth position, 7-5, 6-3.

"We have clinched the first seed in the conference tournament and we are extremely happy about that. We have a tough match remaining with USC Upstate on Wednesday. They are a very dangerous team and we will prepare for them very seriously to give ourselves a chance to finish undefeated again. I think that the guys are ready to go," said head coach Yaser Zaatini.  

The Bucs will be back in action Wednesday, April 9 as they take on USC Upstate in the final match of the regular season. The match is set to begin at 2 p.m. Follow all ETSU men's tennis action at www.ETSUBucs.com.

#46 ETSU 7, GWU 0

Singles

No. 1- Sebastian Serrano (ETSU) def. Carlos Quimano (GWU) 6-3, 6-0

No. 2- Oscar Posada (ETSU) def. Taylor Ferrier (GWU) 6-3, 6-0

No. 3- Alex Ahlgren (ETSU) def. Gran VanRensburg (GWU) 6-4, 6-2

No. 4- Matej Zlatkovic (ETSU) def. Jamie Lawlor (GWU) 6-0, 6-4

No. 5- Sergio Velez (ETSU) def. Joshua Ray (GWU) 6-0, 6-1

No. 6- Jason Ramski (ETSU) def. Ryan Bernthal (GWU) 7-5, 6-3

Doubles

No. 1- Ahlgren/Picardo (ETSU) def. Bernthal/Lawlor (GWU) 8-2

No. 2- Isaza/Posada (ETSU) def.Ray/VanRensburg (GWU) 8-3

No. 3- Burmazovic/Zlatkovic (ETSU) def. Ferrier/Quijano (GWU) 8-4