ETSU looks to continue fall success against the Hokies

BLACKSBURG, Va. (Feb. 10, 2012) – Two days after facing its first ranked opponent of the year – falling 7-0 to No. 47 Georgia State – the ETSU women’s tennis team will make a stop in Blacksburg for a chance at redemption against No. 61 Virginia Tech on Saturday inside the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center at 3:30 p.m.

The Hokies are the first of two ACC opponents on the Bucs’ schedule this year, with No. 68 Wake Forest looming on Mar. 11. ETSU (1-1) is the second of two matches for Virginia Tech (4-1) on Saturday, as the Hokies will first take on Davidson starting a 10 a.m.

ETSU was handed its first 7-0 sweep, on Thursday, since Mar. 13 of last season. The last team to pull the complete sweep against the Bucs is the team they go up against on Saturday in Virginia Tech. In that match, the then-No. 60 Hokies took all three doubles matches by scores of 8-6, 8-5 and 8-3 at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively, and dropped just two sets in singles play. Senior Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) put up the toughest fight, splitting the first two sets before succumbing to Tea Ivanovic in a match tiebreaker 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

Leading the Bucs into Blacksburg is Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain). The No. 115 ITA-ranked senior enters the weekend with a team-leading 13-4 overall singles mark, and is 8-2 in her last 10 matches. With her season-opening win in the Bucs’ 4-3 victory against Radford on Jan. 28, Jaime increased her career singles win total to 78 to move into sixth place all-time at ETSU. She currently sits eight wins behind Olya Batsula for fifth.

Leading the Hokies is senior Martha Blakely. Through five spring matches, Blakely holds a 4-1 record with each match coming at the No. 1 position. Also at 4-1 in dual match play is senior Shannon Betts, who has been playing all of her matches in the No. 3 slot. Each of the classmates’ only losses came against then-No. 9 Virginia, who swept Tech 7-0 on Jan. 31.

ETSU combined to go 2-0 against Tech through singles play in the fall, with freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) defeating Emily Lauten 7-5, 6-3 at the Hokie Fall Invite (Nov. 4-6), and Jaime defeating Betts 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 at the Wake Forest Invitational (Sep. 30-Oct. 2).

Live stats for Saturday afternoon's match will be provided courtesy of HokieSports.com.

For more information on ETSU tennis, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the tennis links.