Herd uses tiebreakers to close out four of six singles points

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (March 9, 2012) – The ETSU women’s tennis team ran into trouble in singles play on Friday afternoon at the Brian David Fox Tennis Center, dropping all six singles points in a 6-1 loss to Marshall.

After starting out the day by capturing the doubles point when senior Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) and freshman Kelsey Williams (Sunbury, Australia) won an 8-6 tiebreak, ETSU (3-5) dropped four tiebreakers to Marshall (6-6) in singles play. Unfortunately for the Bucs, each tiebreaker lost was one which closed out a match to help the Herd sweep the singles portion of the day.

“The final score today does not really show how close the match was or how hard this team worked to have a great chance to win,” ETSU assistant coach Travis Sandlant said. “We just fell short and could not close out a couple of matches we should have won.

“This was a great test for the team and if we continue to work this hard it will help us a lot when we begin conference play.”

Seniors Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) and Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) got ETSU’s day rolling with an 8-5 defeat of Dominika Zaprazna and Maria Voscekova at No. 1 doubles. The loss was just the Marshall duo’s third of the season after heading into Friday with an 8-2 spring team record. Meanwhile, Jaime and Wieliczko remain perfect when paired together this season at 3-0.

Following an 8-5 victory for Marshall in the No. 3 doubles match, Kedzo and Williams went to a tiebreak with Ellie Ball and Kara Kucin to decide the doubles point. The Buccaneer duo prevailed to give ETSU the 1-0 advantage heading into singles play.

It was the only point ETSU came away with on the day.

Kucin quickly exacted her revenge on Kedzo with a 6-3, 6-4 win in the No. 4 match to draw the Herd even. Shortly after, Voscekova ended sophomore Giulia Andreazza’s (Balneario Camboriu, Brazil) two-match winning streak in a 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Andreazza in the No. 2 match. 

Marshall closed out the other four singles points in tiebreakers.

Freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) saw her four-match winning streak end when Kia Broomfield took the first set of the match and won a second set tiebreak for a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory to put Marshall up 3-1. The Herd then clinched the match when Ball came back from a set down to defeat Wieliczko in the No. 3 match 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Jaime kept herself alive at No. 1 singles after coming back from dropping the first set at love to win the second in a tiebreaker, but could not hold off Zaprazna in a third set breaker and fell 6-0, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-2). With the match already decided, Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) entered a match tiebreaker after splitting the first two sets with Kristinia Koprcina, but was ultimately defeated 6-7 (2-7), 7-5, 1-0 (10-4).  

The ETSU women’s tennis team will now head to Winston-Salem, N.C., for a Sunday meeting with Wake Forest at the Indoor Tennis Courts. First serve is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

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