ETSU women’s tennis finishes 7-0 at home

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 8, 2023) – The rain did not stop ETSU women’s tennis from celebrating its senior day in winning fashion, as the Bucs defeated in-state rival Chattanooga by a 6-1 final indoors at the Bristol Sportsplex on Saturday afternoon.

Due to inclement weather, the match moved from a 1 p.m. outdoor start in Johnson City to a 3 p.m. indoor start in Bristol. The Bucs never lost a step, winning the doubles point and taking five of the six singles points. This improved ETSU to a perfect 7-0 record in home matches, 5-0 in conference matches and 15-6 overall. Chattanooga falls to 13-7 overall and 2-4 in the SoCon.

In between doubles and singles, ETSU honored four graduating seniors playing their final home match — Emilia Alfaro (Azul, Argentina), Yunuen Elizarraras (Cuernavaca, Mexico), Mariya Shumeika (Minsk, Belarus)  and Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan).

Chattanooga struck first with a win at No. 3 doubles, but the Shumeika/Bakhodirova senior tandem evened it up with a 6-4 win over Caroline Gibbens and Jessie Young. Per usual this season, ETSU won the point at No. 2 singles with trusty duo Maria Fernanda Carvajal (Queretaro, Mexico) and Daniela Rivera (Maturin, Venezuela) earning a 7-6 win to settle the score. The pair is now 13-4 on the season.

After the senior day festivities, the two rivals transitioned to singles. ETSU collected an automatic point due to a withdrawal to make it 2-0, then proceeded to clinch the match with mirroring 6-2, 6-1 wins by Carvajal and Shumeika. The Bucs also won two of the last three matches — both won on 7-6 tiebreakers in the second set by Bakhodirova and Rivera.

Rivera has won eight straight matches in singles and five straight in doubles alongside Carvajal. Bakhodirova also extended her singles win streak to six.

ETSU will wrap up the regular season next week with road matches at Western Carolina on Tuesday, April 11 and on Saturday, April 15 at Furman. 

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