ETSU women’s tennis improves to 5-0 at home this season

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 2, 2023) – The ETSU women’s tennis team started its final home stand of the season on a high note, taking down in-state rival Middle Tennessee State with a 4-0 sweep on Sunday at the Dave Mullins Tennis Complex.

The Bucs have won all five home matches so far this season with two coming up this week against Mercer and Chattanooga. Today’s match also ends non-conference play, as ETSU finishes with a 10-6 non-conference record with four matches against ranked opponents. One of those came as a win over No. 72 Yale.

Today’s win started with a heated battle in doubles, as ETSU delivered the first blow with a 6-2 win at No. 3 singles by Emilia Alfaro (Azul, Argentina) and Yunuen Elizarraras (Cuernavaca, Mexico). Making her triumphant return to the lineup, Elizarraras played her first match since Feb. 18 at VCU.

MTSU battled back to a tie in doubles with a 6-3 win at the No. 1 spot, but shortly after, ETSU snatched the point with a 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles by Maria Fernanda Carvajal (Queretaro, Mexico) and Daniela Rivera (Maturin, Venezuela). With their doubles-clinching win, Carvajal and Rivera improved to 11-4 overall and with three straight wins and an 8-2 record in the last 10 outings.

It only took three singles matches for ETSU to clinch the contest, starting with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win by Mariya Shumeika (Minsk, Belarus) at No. 2 singles. The fifth and sixth courts is where ETSU finished the match, as Rivera and Ralitsa Alexandrova (Sofia, Bulgaria) extended mirroring six-match win streaks. Alexandrova won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 6 singles, while Rivera won 6-2, 6-1 in the five spot.

All six Bucs won their opening sets, including ace Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) who had a 6-1, 2-6 battle going with Love-Star Alexis before her teammates clinched the match. Carvajal was up 6-3, 1-2 on court three against Muskan Gupta, while Alfaro was up 6-2, 3-1 against Noelle Mauro.

The Bucs will look to keep their home success alive this coming week, starting with a match against Mercer on Thursday, April 6 at 2 p.m. at the Dave Mullins Tennis Complex.

The home portion of the schedule ends Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m. against Chattanooga for Senior Day. Bakhodirova, Shumeika, Alfaro and Elizarraras are the four graduating players on this year’s squad that will be honored this coming Saturday. 

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