Women’s tennis welcomes top of the A-Sun to the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center on Friday and Saturday

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 22, 2012) – After opening the conference season on the road last weekend in Jacksonville, Fla., the ETSU women’s tennis team returns to the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center to open the home portion of the Atlantic Sun schedule against Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast.

The Bucs welcome Stetson to Johnson City on Friday before capping off the weekend against FGCU on Saturday. First serve on Friday and Saturday is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

ETSU (4-7, 1-1 A-Sun) enters the weekend coming off a split of its first two conference matches. Last Friday, the Bucs earned a 6-1 victory over Jacksonville by sweeping the doubles point and taking five of six singles matches in straight sets. The following day ETSU tested its 1-0 A-Sun start against North Florida, but wound up on the opposite end of another 6-1 final.

All six of the Bucs who played in singles matches in Jacksonville enter this weekend with 1-1 conference records. Senior Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain), sophomore Giulia Andreazza (Balneario Camboriu, Brazil), senior Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France), senior Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) and freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethon, Tenn.) each won their respective singles matches in the 6-1 win over JU, while senior Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) was the lone Buccaneer to win her match against UNF by taking down Melanie Aguirre 6-4, 6-2.

Leading ETSU through this point of the season are Jaime and Brumit. Jaime holds the team-lead in singles victories at 17-9 overall, 5-6 dual, while Brumit sits in second at 13-8, 6-5 dual. The senior has split time between No. 1 and No. 2 singles with a 4-4 record at No. 1 and a 1-2 record at No. 2, while the freshman has split time between No. 5 and No. 6 singles going 5-4 at No. 6 and 1-1 at No. 5.

Stetson (8-1, 2-0 A-Sun) enters the weekend as winners of its last six matches. The Hatters began the streak in their conference opener on March 3 with a 4-3 win over Kennesaw State, and most recently defeated the BIG EAST’s Cincinnati 7-0 in DeLand, Fla., on Monday. In between, Stetson has taken down Michigan State, Florida Atlantic, Youngstown State and Mercer.

Lindsey Cable has been perfect for the Hatters this spring, boasting a flawless 8-0 singles record at the No. 5 position. Diana Bukajeva is not far behind, holding an 8-1 record this spring at the No. 4 position. Cable, Bukajeva and Sara Lezarevic currently hold winning streaks of five matches or better.

Florida Gulf Coast (5-6, 2-0 A-Sun) enters the weekend coming off a 7-0 sweep of Mercer last Thursday in Ft. Myers. Prior to that, the Eagles had lost two matches in a row suffering a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Pennsylvania and a 7-0 result to Virginia Tech.

Bettina Botha leads the Eagles through the spring season with a 7-3 dual record. All 10 of Botha’s matches have come at the No. 5 position, while Sarah Means, the Eagles No. 1 player, enters the weekend with a 5-6 dual record.

FGCU is set to face USC Upstate on Friday before taking on the Bucs on Saturday.

Last year, the Bucs defeated both FGCU and Stetson at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center on March 25 and 26, respectively. ETSU swept the Eagles 7-0 that Friday before defeating the Hatters 4-2 on Saturday.

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