ETSU looks to build off dominant weekend

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 29, 2012) – Winners of three of its first four Atlantic Sun matches, the ETSU women’s tennis team heads to Nashville Tenn., for weekend duals with Lipscomb and Belmont.

The Buccaneers square off with Lipscomb at the Huston-Marsh-Griffith Tennis Center on Friday at 2 p.m., and conclude the weekend with the Bruins at the Centennial Sportsplex on Saturday at 10 a.m.

ETSU (6-7, 3-1 A-Sun) opened the home portion of the A-Sun season last weekend against Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast. Both matches were moved to the indoor Bristol Racquet Club due to the threat of precipitation near Johnson City, Tenn., but the Bucs still kept their perfect home record intact with a 6-1 defeat of Stetson and a 7-0 sweep of FGCU. ETSU is now 5-0 at home this year with three of those wins coming at the Bristol Racquet Club and the other two at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center.

Guiding the Bucs to both victories last weekend was Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain). The senior won both of her singles and doubles matches – all at the No. 1 position – on her way to being named A-Sun Player of the Week. Jaime’s two singles victories moved her 2011-12 record to 19-9 overall, as she now sits two wins shy of Olya Batsula’s 86 career victories for fifth place all-time at ETSU.

Also with two singles victories last weekend were sophomore Giulia Andreazza (Balneario Camboriu, Brazil), freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.), senior Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) and senior Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France). Of the group, Brumit holds the best spring record at 8-5.

Lipscomb (4-8, 1-2 A-Sun) has played its first three conference matches on the road against Belmont, Mercer and Kennesaw State. The Bisons got the A-Sun season underway two weeks ago in a 4-3 loss to the Bruins, before heading to Georgia last weekend and defeating Mercer 4-3 while losing to Kennesaw State 6-1.

Samantha Bowman has held Lipscomb’s hottest racket. The senior from Oak Ridge, Tenn., earned the Bisons their only point against KSU by defeating Kelsey Kennedy 6-0, 6-1, and won a crucial No. 6 match in the 4-3 victory over Belmont by defeating Katherine Cooper 6-1, 6-3.

Belmont (5-7, 2-1 A-Sun) heads into the weekend the same way as Lipscomb, coming off a 6-1 loss to Kennesaw State. After defeating Lipscomb in their A-Sun opener, the Bruins beat Mercer 5-2 the following Friday before suffering the loss to KSU.

Natalia Nunes has enjoyed the most success for Belmont this spring with an 8-2 dual record. Nunes has won her last three matches, and primarily plays at the No. 6 position where she is 7-2. Laura Stack holds Belmont’s second best dual record at 7-5, with most of her matches coming at the No. 5 slot.

Last year, ETSU swept both Lipscomb and Belmont, 7-0, at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center.

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