Kedzo pulls out ETSU’s only point of the match as Bucs drop first A-Sun contest of the season

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (March 17, 2012) – The ETSU women’s tennis team was handed its first loss of the conference season on Saturday afternoon at the UNF Tennis Complex, falling 6-1 to North Florida.

Senior Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) earned ETSU’s (4-7, 1-1 A-Sun) only point of the match with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Melanie Aguirre. The singles victory broke a three-match losing streak for Kedzo and improved the senior’s record to 8-10 overall, 2-3 this spring.

The rest of the day belonged to North Florida (6-4, 2-0 A-Sun). The Ospreys swept the doubles portion of the match and won five singles matches – four in straight sets – to remain perfect through their first two matches in A-Sun play. 

“Full credit to UNF today as they played some solid tennis,” ETSU assistant coach Travis Sandlant said. “I felt we left a lot of opportunities out on the court and needed to execute at a better level.

“My hat’s off to Karina [Kedzo] today as she responded well from yesterday’s match. This was her best effort to date after coming back from injury.”

UNF took the early advantage by taking all three doubles matches. Aline Berkenbrock and Lorena Aviles captured the most decisive doubles victory in the No. 1 match with an 8-1 defeat of Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) and Kedzo. The other two matches were not much closer as Danielle Day and Melanie Aguirre defeated Giulia Andreazza (Balneario Camboriu, Brazil) and Kelsey Williams (Sunbury, Australia) at No. 3 doubles 8-2, while Simona Weymar and Rebeca Pereira defeated Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) and Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) 8-3.

With a 1-0 lead, the Ospreys never looked back. ‘

Jaime, Andreazza, Brumit and Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) were all defeated in straight sets – Navrostska in a second-set tiebreak – while Wieliczko fell in a match tiebreak after splitting the first two sets. Wieliczko’s and Brumit’s losses ended two-match winning streaks for each, as all six Buccaneers who played in singles matches this weekend now hold a conference record of 1-1.

ETSU opens the home portion of the A-Sun schedule next Friday when Stetson visits the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center at 1:30 p.m.

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