Senior women’s tennis ace goes 10-4 in March

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (April 7, 2023) – For the second month in a row, ETSU women’s tennis senior Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) was announced by the Southern Conference as the league’s Player of the Month — released Friday afternoon.

After going 9-0 last month in singles and doubles, Bakhodirova went 10-4 in the month of March with a 5-1 singles record and a 5-3 doubles record. The senior played all of her matches in the top flight, facing the best players from four nationally-ranked teams.

The Uzbekistan native had a pair of ranked wins over No. 72 Yale this past month and nearly went 3-1 in singles against nationally-ranked teams. She finished with a win over Yale’s Rhea Shrivastava and a loss to the No. 17 player in the nation from No. 4 NC State — Amelia Rajecki. She then had two matches go unfinished against opponents from No. 36 FIU and No. 39 Charlotte, where she led in the third set of both matches before the match was clinched elsewhere.

To end the month, Bakhodirova was selected as the SoCon Player of the Week for the seventh time in her career and fourth time this season. She is the active leader in weekly awards for the SoCon both this season and for a career.

For the season, Bakhodirova has a 14-3 singles record with five straight wins. She and teammate Mariya Shumeika (Minsk, Belarus) have a 12-6 record in doubles. Bakhodirova is 8-0 in league matches this season — four singles and four doubles wins.

Bakhodirova is one of just three SoCon athletes to repeat as a monthly award winner this month, joining Furman softball’s Riley Ludlam and Wofford baseball’s Ryan Galanie who also won in February.

Tomorrow, ETSU will play its final home match of the season with the Bucs set to face in-state rival Chattanooga at 1 p.m.

In between doubles and singles, the ETSU program will celebrate its four graduating players with a special ceremony — Bakhodirova, Shumeika, Emilia Alfaro (Azul, Argentina) and Yunuen Elizarraras (Cuernavaca, Mexico). There will be free pizza at Saturday’s match, while supplies last. 

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