Jaime becomes sixth Buccaneer to reach 80 career wins

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 3, 2012) – Senior Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) came back from 5-1 down in the second set to win 6-3, 7-5, and freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) won her third-consecutive match as the ETSU women’s tennis team defeated Liberty 5-2 on Saturday afternoon in the Buccaneers' on-campus home opener at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center.

“I think we played pretty well today,” Director of ETSU Tennis Yaser Zaatini said. “We didn’t do anything spectacular, but I think everybody was working hard and competed well as team. If we can get our team back to full strength then I think this team will compete well in the conference.”

With the win, ETSU (2-4) ended a four-match losing skid and extended its home winning streak to 20-consecutive matches. Liberty (1-7) has now dropped its last four matches after losing 7-0 to Marshall on Friday before coming up short on Saturday to the Bucs.

ETSU got the day started with a doubles sweep. Jaime and fellow senior Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) paired together for the first time all year and took care of Alexandra Sheeran and Rebekah Jenkins at No. 1 doubles, 8-0. Brumit and sophomore Giulia Andreazza (Balneario Camboriu, Brazil) clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 victory over Nicole Wellman and Carol Lobel, before freshman Kelsey Williams (Sunbury, Australia) and junior Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) finished off the sweep with an 8-6 comeback against Cameron Richard and Brittany Yang. Williams and Navrostska trailed 6-4 in the set and used two holds and two breaks to string together the last four games.

Navrostska carried her momentum into singles play with a 6-0, 6-3 defeat of Wellman in the No. 5 match. The win evened the junior’s dual record to 3-3 as she has now won three of her last four matches.

With ETSU ahead 2-1 in the match, Jaime trailed Sheeran 5-1 in the second set after having won the first set pretty handily, 6-3. Just as it appeared Sheeran was going to force Jaime into a third set, the Madrid native reeled off six-consecutive games to close out Sheeran in two sets and put ETSU in front 3-1. The win lifted Jaime’s record this year to 15-6 overall, 3-3 dual, and was her 80th career singles win, making her just the sixth Buccaneer to reach the 80-win plateau.

Brumit then clinched the match for ETSU, sticking with her winning ways by taking down Lobel in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, to earn the freshman her third-consecutive win. Brumit also moved her dual record to 3-3, and is 10-6 overall after going 7-3 during the fall.

After Wieliczko lost a heartbreaker in a match tiebreak 1-6, 7-5, 1-0 (14-12), the Bucs wrapped up the match on a winning note with Andreazza defeating Jenkins in two close sets 7-5, 7-5.

ETSU will look for its 21st-consecutive home win on Tuesday, when it welcomes Western Carolina to the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center at 3 p.m.

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