JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 15, 2009) - After winning a share of its third Atlantic Sun Conference regular season title in school history the second seeded ETSU women's tennis team kicks off its quest for a 2009 A-Sun tournament championship as they face off against the seventh seeded Lipscomb Lady Bisons with a 11:30 a.m., contest Thursday at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center on the ETSU campus.  

The Lady Bucs (14-6, 8-1 A-Sun) enter the tournament on a roll posting three straight non-conference wins over Wofford, UNC-Asheville and Tennessee Tech in the past week. Overall, the Lady Bucs have won seven out of their last 10 contests with its only conference lost of the season coming at top seeded Stetson 4-3.

Individually, senior Tara Byrne (Johnson City) and junior Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) lead the way after both earned a spot on the All A-Sun First-Team Wednesday. In addition to the conference award Byrne recently became ETSU all-time wins leader with 105 career victories, while Stupak earned her first A-Sun Player of the Year award.

In addition to both upperclassmen, freshmen Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) and Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela), enter their first A-Sun tournament after being honored by the league with a pair of awards. Both ETSU newcomers earned spots on the All A-Sun Second-Team in addition to being awarded accolades on the all-freshman squad.

Lipscomb (6-15, 0-10) enters the contest after dropping its last 10 matches. In fact the Lady Bisons last win came all the way back against Wofford March 8, as the LU handed the Terriers a 5-2 lost.

In its last meeting between the two schools ETSU dominated from start to finish dropping Lipscomb 7-0, March 6. In the contest the Lady Bucs did not drop a single set sweeping all nine matches in route to improving its all-time record against the Lady Bisons to 4-0.

Attached above is the official 2009 Atlantic Sun Conference tournament bracket.

For more information on the ETSU women's tennis program please visit www.ETSUBucs.com