JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 26, 2009) - After dropping its first home match of the season the ETSU women's tennis team looks to rebound as they welcome Atlantic Sun Conference rivals North Florida and Jacksonville to the Tri-Cities this weekend. The Lady Bucs will face off against UNF with a 1:30 p.m., contest Friday, before battling JU at 12:00 p.m., Saturday at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center in Johnson City, Tenn.  

ETSU (7-5, 4-0 A-Sun) enters the contest after dropping its first home match of the season to Winthrop, Tuesday afternoon. Despite the loss to the Eagles the Lady Bucs have played well lately picking up road wins at Campbell and UNC-Charlotte in the past week. Individually, freshman Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain), leads the ETSU attack after earning her first career A-Sun Player of the Week honor Wednesday. The Lady Buc newcomer is coming off a number of impressive performances over the past week posting a 3-0 singles record, in addition to earning a 3-0 doubles mark with junior teammate Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine).

UNF (12-2, 6-0 A-Sun) enters the contest after winning its last nine matches. The Lady Ospreys have been dominating over its opponents during that stretch outscoring the opposition 54-9 with four match sweeps. Individually, freshman Aline Berkenbrock has been playing her best tennis of the season as the UNF newcomer notched back-to-back single and doubles wins in the Lady Ospreys victories over Kennesaw State and Mercer.

ETSU leads the all-time series with North Florida 2-0. In their last meeting the Lady Bucs dominated their way to a 5-2 road win over the Lady Ospreys last April.

Jacksonville (8-7, 4-2 A-Sun) enters its match splitting a pair of league contests at home last weekend. The defending back-to-back A-Sun tournament champions dropped Mercer 4-3, before falling to Kennesaw State. Individually, junior Fernanda Carrero leads the Dolphin offense with a 10-5 overall record and 5-1 mark in A-Sun action.

Jacksonville leads the all-time series with ETSU 4-2. The Dolphins and Lady Bucs last met in the 2008 A-Sun tournament championship match with JU edging out ETSU by two points.

With the possibly of inclement weather in the Tri-Cities area over the weekend attached above is the schedule for both matches in case of rain.

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