Friday, April 20, 2012

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 20, 2012) – The No. 1-seeded ETSU men’s tennis team will battle No. 5-seeded USC Upstate in a rematch of the two sides’ regular season finale on Saturday in the Atlantic Sun Championships semifinals at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center. Match time has been moved to 8 a.m. due to the threat of inclement weather.

ETSU (12-8, 9-0 A-Sun) – ranked No. 72 in the Campbell/ITA national poll – defeated USC Upstate 5-2 last Saturday to earn the Buccaneers their first undefeated conference season since 2009. The Senior Day match was bittersweet for ETSU’s graduating class of Sander Gille (Kuringen, Belgium), Jeremy Bonnevalle (Keerbergen, Belgium) and Robin Akser (Ornskoldsvik, Sweden), as Gille and Bonnevalle were defeated in singles play while Akser was downed with Gille in doubles. The singles losses also snapped 11-match winning streaks for Gille and Bonnevalle, and put a dent in their unblemished A-Sun records.

USC Upstate (12-9, 4-5 A-Sun) earned its spot in the semifinals by defeating No. 4 Lipscomb, 4-2, in Friday's first quarterfinal. This will be the Spartans' first trip to the semifinal round.

The other semifinal match featuring No. 2 North Florida and No. 3 Stetson has also been moved to 8 a.m., and will be played at the tennis courts at Milligan College.

Live stats will be available for the match between ETSU and USC Upstate courtesy of ETSUBucs.com.

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