KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (September 17, 2006) - The ETSU women's tennis team found success Sunday as they wrapped up play at the St. Mary's Classic. The Lady Bucs won four of their six singles matches.

In third flight singles action, Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) cruised to an easy victory over N.C. State's Alexandra Guerra, 6-1, 6-2 to finish in fifth place. After falling in her first two matches, sophomore Tara Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) picked up her first victory of the season over Connor Vogel of Tennessee, 6-2, 6-2 to earn a seventh place finish in the flight four bracket.

"I'm real happy with Yevgeniya's progress and play in her first college tournament," said head coach Steve Brooks. "Tara also had a good solid win over Conner Vogel who was a highly recruited player out of Memphis. It was good a good win for ETSU over UT."

Meanwhile, Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) finished third in the flight five bracket, ETSU's highest finish in singles, defeating Kentucky's Whitney Spencer. Volobueva took the first set, 6-4 but dropped the second set 1-6, before battling back to win the match in a 6-2 third set.

"Elena won her first set, but then had a little hiccup in her second set, but regained her confidence in the third set and just did really well," said Brooks.

Competing in flight six action, Vita Moskaliova (Minsk, Belarus) also saw victory defeating Alison Barry of N.C. State in a hard fought 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 match. The win earned Moskaliova a fifth place finish.

"Vita played extremely well, after she dropped the first set, she came back fought hard and won the second set," said Brooks. "In the third set she was down, but found her confidence and didn't lose a single game after that."

In top flight action, junior Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) fell to No. 59 Monica Dancevic of Georgia in a tough battle, 6-2, 6-6 (6), 6-3, while Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) fell to Julia  Roach of N.C. State, 6-2, 6-3.

"Olya dropped her first set and was just feeling really sore. We're just not used to playing all these matches in a row yet. She came back and fought really hard and took the second set and was up in the third set but Dancevic was just able to convert to take the match," commented Brooks. "Masha finally began to show signs of herself. It took her five sets to start getting her groove back and in her sixth set she started playing like she normally does."

"Overall we ended up doing well in the tournament. We're looking forward to practicing hard and going to wake Forest for another tournament. I look for us to continue to improve as we're learning how to play in this elite level of the NCAA," added Brooks.