Senior wins sixth-career weekly award

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Feb. 21, 2023) – For the third time this season and the sixth time in her career, ETSU senior Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) was named the Southern Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week, announced by the league office on Tuesday afternoon.

Bakhodirova becomes a six-time winner of the award — the most weekly awards among active SoCon players. She joins five other players all-time that have won the award six or more times in their career and is the first player to do so from a school other than Furman.

The senior from Uzbekistan went 2-0 this week in a 5-2 win over VCU — ETSU’s first win over the school since 2018. She and Mariya Shumeika (Minsk, Belarus) took down the ITA’s No. 59 ranked team, Yelizaveta Karlova and Victoria Matasova, by a 6-4 final.

In singles, Bakhodirova won her No. 1 spot match with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Victoria Smirnova. The senior has a six match win streak in singles with an 8-2 record, while owning a 7-1 record in doubles with five straight victories alongside Shumeika.

The Bucs return home to host Radford on Friday, March 3 at 2 p.m. from the Dave Mullins Tennis Complex. 

For more information on Buccaneer women’s tennis, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women’s tennis page.