Bucs improve to 3-1 in conference play

BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 24, 2012) – The ETSU women’s tennis team won its 23rd-consecutive home match on Saturday by sweeping FGCU 7-0 at the Bristol Racquet Club.

For the second time in two days, ETSU (6-7, 3-1 A-Sun) moved its match to Bristol, Tenn., due to the threat of precipitation in the Johnson City area. At the Bristol Racquet Club’s indoor facility, ETSU improved its 2012 home record to 5-0 by winning every set contested through the day. Meanwhile, FGCU (5-8, 2-2 A-Sun) dropped its second-consecutive match and remains winless on the road this season at 0-3.

“It was good to see the team came out where it left off last night,” ETSU assistant coach Travis Sandlant said. “We could have easily came out flat today and relaxed too much. This has been a successful couple of days for our team.”  

Seniors Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) and Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) continued to click by defeating Morgan Bechtel and Marina Diez 8-1 in the No. 1 doubles match. Jaime and Wieliczko have now won their last two doubles matches and are 5-1 as a team this spring. Fellow seniors Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) and Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) followed suit by improving their team doubles record to 2-0 with a 9-8 (7-4) win in the No. 2 match over Jen Evans and Gyanna Mandic. The last of the doubles matches featuring sophomore Giulia Andreazza (Balneario Camboriu, Brazil) and freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) also went to a tiebreak, with the ETSU duo taking the set by the same score, 9-8 (7-4).

The singles portion of the day belonged to ETSU with the Bucs winning every point in straight sets.

Jaime improved her team-leading singles record to 19-9 with a 6-4, 6-0 win against Means at the No. 1, while Andreazza and Navrostska reached the 10-win mark this year with singles victories at the No. 2 and No. 5 matches, respectively. The most impressive victory of the day belonged to Wieliczko, who defeated Diez 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 3. Kedzo and Brumit were also in the lineup at No. 4 and No. 6, respectively, and handled both of their matches with Brumit’s second set coming down to a 7-6 (7-5) tiebreak.

The ETSU women’s tennis team continues A-Sun action next Friday and Saturday when it travels to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Lipscomb and Belmont.

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