BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 28, 2009) - Winning six out of its last seven matches the ETSU women's tennis team stayed on a roll Saturday crushing two time defending Atlantic Sun Conference Jacksonville, 4-0 inside the Bristol Racquet Club in Bristol, Tenn. With the win ETSU improves to a 9-5 overall record, with a perfect 6-0 mark in A-Sun action, while the Dolphins fall to 8-8 and 4-3.

ETSU opened play taking the doubles point and the early 1-0 lead, sweeping all three pairs contests.

The Lady Bucs followed that up as senior Tara Byrne (Johnson City) continued to roll this weekend dropping JU's Elvira Yusupova in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. The Tri-Cities native continued to inch closer to former ETSU great Masha Illina all-time wins record of 103 and now sits only five wins shy of that mark.

After Byrne gave the Lady Bucs a 2-0 lead, junior Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) made quick work of Tatiana Soldvatova in No. 1 singles play dropping the JU junior in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. With the Lady Bucs then needing only one more win to clinch its first win against the Dolphins in two seasons, freshman Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain), closed out the scoring with a thrilling three-set victory over Juliana Umeki 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.

With the victory now in hand other ETSU scores on the day were senior Vita Moskalivoa (Minsk, Belarus), who was up on Iva Jaresova winning the first set 6-1, while sophomore Tara Sheets (Gate City, Va.) was leading her No. 5 singles contest against Virigina Iwinski, 6-0 after the first frame. Rounding out the scores for ETSU was fellow sophomore Andra Voinea (Brasov, Romania), who led her first set against Fernanda Carrero, 3-2 when ETSU won its fourth point to close out the match.

"I'm very proud of the girls today," said head coach Steve Brooks. "It was good to get the win and stay atop the conference standings. Like we did yesterday against North Florida we came out focused and really played well in the doubles. Going back to all the close matches we have played over the past month or so our girls are learning to stay mentally tough, which is going to give us a big advantage as we head into our final three conference matches and the A-Sun tournament."

The Lady Bucs will now return to action next weekend as ETSU travels to face league foes Stetson and FGCU.

Attached above is the final results of today's contest with Jacksonville. 

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