Byrne now sits six wins away from all-time singles record

BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 27, 2009) - After dropping its first home match of the season to Winthrop Tuesday, the ETSU women's tennis team rebounded by staying unbeaten in Atlantic Sun Conference action dropping a tough indoor match against league foe North Florida, 4-0 Friday night inside the Bristol Racquet Club in Bristol, Tenn.

The Lady Bucs (8-5, 5-0) opened play sweeping both doubles matches as the ETSU duo of junior Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) and freshman Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) dropped the UNF pair of Raquel Castro and Aline Berkenbrock 8-6, while teammates senior Tara Byrne (Johnson City) and freshman Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) made quick work of Ina Durcakvoa and Nikita Van Lierop, 8-6.

After taking an early 1-0 lead Byrne extended the Lady Buc advantage dropping Castro in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, for her 98 career singles win, putting her only six victories away from Masha Illina all-time mark.

ETSU followed that up as Kedzo pushed the ETSU lead to 3-0 after dropping Van Lierop 6-3, 6-2 in No. 3 single play.

Wrapping up the scores for ETSU was No. 109^th-ranked Yevgeniya Stupak. who after taking an early 6-3 first set lead, found herself tied with Aline Berkenbrock after the UNF freshman rallied to take the second set 3-6. Both players continued to battle game-for-game in the third set as Berkenbrock held a slight advantage early 4-3. Stupak would then respond holding her serve in addition to breaking Berkenbrock's giving the ETSU junior a 5-3 lead heading into the final game. With the ninth game tied 30-30 Stupak would blast home two straight points for the three-set win.

"This was definitely a nice hard fought win for us today," said head coach Steve Brooks. "Despite the score being 4-0 this was a close contest against a much improved UNF squad. (Assistant coach) Travis Sandlant did an excellent job getting the girls ready in doubles the past couple of days which really showed early. UNF hasn't lost a doubles point all season and for our girls to play that well is something I'm very proud of."

The Lady Bucs will now return to action Saturday as the ETSU host back-to-back A-Sun champs Jacksonville at the Bristol Racquet Club in Bristol, Tenn.

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

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