BLACKSBURG, Va. (Feb. 11, 2012) – Singles victories from Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) and Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) were not enough for the ETSU women’s tennis team on Saturday afternoon, as the Bucs fell 5-2 to No. 61 Virginia Tech at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center.

“We have gone up against some quality competition over the last few days, but I was pleased with our level of intensity and the effort we put forth after the doubles point,” ETSU assistant coach Travis Sandlant said. “We came away with some well deserved victories from Paula [Jaime] and Diana [Navrostska]."

ETSU (1-2) has now dropped its last two after starting 1-0, but have had to face much improved competition over those two matches. Thursday’s loss came to No. 47 Georgia State, 7-0, and Saturday’s marks ETSU’s second-consecutive to a ranked opponent this season.

Jaime, the No. 115-ranked ITA women’s singles player, moved to 14-4 overall on the year and improved her spring record to 2-1 with a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory over Virginia Tech's (6-1) Isel Martinez-Marcos. After taking the first set in the tiebreak, Jaime jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second but saw Martinez-Marcos fight back to tie the set at 5-5. The ETSU senior avoided a match tiebreaker by winning the last two games to finish off the set and match.

Navrostska earned her first victory of the spring season, moving to 5-7 overall and 1-2 in dual play. After conceding the first set to Emily Lauten, the ETSU junior rallied to dominate the second set before taking the match 4-6, 6-1, 10-7. The victory was the second ETSU has had against Lauten this year, with freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) having defeated Lauten 7-5, 6-3 during the fall season.

The other four singles matches all ended in fairly one-sided straight sets, and in favor of the Hokies.

Virginia Tech wound up with the doubles point as well, defeating ETSU in all three matches to start the day. The Bucs’ closest match was at No. 2 singles, with freshman Kelsey Williams (Sunbury, Australia) and Navrostska falling to Shannon Betts and Katie Blow 8-5.

Earlier in the day, Virginia tech swept Davidson 7-0.

The ETSU women’s tennis team continues its string of six-consecutive road matches next Sunday, Feb. 19, when it travels to Boone, N.C. to take on Appalachian State at 2 p.m.

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