Bucs to honor senior class of Jaime, Kedzo, Navrostska and Wieliczko

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 12, 2012) – The ETSU women’s tennis team enters the final weekend of the regular season with two home matches, as it is set for a make-up date with Appalachian State along with its regular season finale against USC Upstate.

Originally scheduled for Feb. 19 in Boone, N.C., ETSU’s (9-8, 6-2 A-Sun) match with Appalachian State (12-10, 5-5 SoCon) will be played in Johnson City, Tenn., on Friday at 3 p.m. The contest was postponed earlier in the year due to inclement weather. The Bucs then conclude the regular season at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center on Saturday when they are scheduled to face USC Upstate (7-13, 4-4 A-Sun) at 2:30 p.m.

Saturday will also be Senior Day for ETSU’s senior tandem of Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain), Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela), Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) and Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France), who will all be honored and recognized for their accomplishments before the start of the match.

ETSU heads into Friday looking to restart its home winning streak which was snapped last Saturday against Kennesaw State. Before falling in a 4-3 heartbreaker to the Owls, ETSU had not lost a home match since March 24, 2009 when it dropped a 5-2 result to Winthrop. Regardless, last week was not all bad for the Bucs as they won their sixth A-Sun match of the season in a 7-0 sweep of Mercer on Friday.

Jaime continues to impress this spring with an 11-6 dual record and a current six-match winning streak. Jaime is also 23-9 overall through the fall and spring seasons, just two wins shy of her career-best 25-8 mark she posted during her freshman season. Two wins this weekend would make Jaime just the fifth Buccaneer to reach 90 career victories, as she is currently 88-45 in her four years with the Bucs.

Freshman Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) shares Jaime’s lead in dual victories with an 11-5 spring record. Brumit is also in the midst of a five-match winning streak, and primarily plays in the No. 6 spot where she is 9-4.

Not far behind Jaime and Brumit is Navrostska. Like Jaime, Navrostska has won her last six singles matches and is 7-1 this year in A-Sun play. Navrostska’s current spring record stands at 10-6.

Appalachian State played two matches earlier in the week, defeating Wofford 6-1 in its conference finale on Monday, before falling 4-3 to Charlotte in Boone, N.C., on Tuesday. The Mountaineers have faced one nationally ranked team this season when they met with then-No. 61 Virginia Tech on Feb. 5, losing 7-0.

Gabby Gabriel leads Appalachian State with the most singles victories this spring, currently holding a dual record of 14-7. Gabriel has spent most of her time in the No. 6 slot where she is 10-1. Two wins behind Gabriel is Jennifer Ansari, who is 12-8 with all 20 of her spring matches coming at the No. 2.

USC Upstate heads into its final meeting of the regular season as winners of three of its last four matches. The Spartans most recently defeated Mercer, 7-0, last Saturday, but fell 6-1 to Kennesaw State on Friday. The weekend prior, the Spartans defeated both Belmont and Lipscomb in Nashville, Tenn.

Maria Tonani has been swinging the hottest racket for Upstate this spring. Tonani – primarily the No. 6 starter – is on a six-match winning streak and is a team-best 12-8 through dual play. Talia Rojas sits a win behind Tonani at 11-9, having split her time fairly evenly between the No. 2, 3 and 4 matches.

Friday’s meeting with Appalachian State will be ETSU’s first since April 9, 2005, when the Bucs blanked the Mountaineers, 7-0, in a Southern Conference match at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center. ETSU’s last meeting with USC Upstate came on March 19 of last season in Spartanburg, S.C., with the Bucs coming away with a 6-1 victory.

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