Saturday, March 19, 2005

                CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Mar. 19, 2005) - East Tennessee State's women's tennis team picked up a win Saturday afternoon against Charlotte in a 5-2 decision. The Bucs improve to 12-4 overall and are 4-1 in the SoCon, while Charlotte falls to 6-3.

                "We played a lot better and were more steady today," said Head Coach Steve Brooks. "Charlotte is a tough team, they beat us last year and it feels good to get the win."

                Charlotte's Laura Swain and Ashleigh Murray combined at No. 1 beat   picked up the No. 1 win 8-3 against ETSU's Sylwia Ziolkowska (Warsaw, Poland) and Masha Ilina's (Kyiv, Ukraine). However, the Bucs' Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) and Gemma Halim (Jakarta, Indonesia) would take the match at No. 3 against Kathy Robey and Catherine Lynas  8-0 and Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) and Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) would take the match at No. 2 against Jennifer Hatch and Ali Piacente 8-5 for the doubles point.

                In singles play, freshman Muriel Sherwood (Atlanta, Ga.) would step up for the Bucs securing the first singles point at No. 6 against Lynas. Batsula would add another point with a win at No. 5 against Hatch before Charlotte would win their two points at the first and third spots. Ilina would then provide the clinching point at No. 2 and Volobueva would pick up the final singles point for the 5-2 final.

"We're looking forward to our match tomorrow and hopefully we'll have good weather for the match against Atlantic Sun foe Gardner-Webb," commented Brooks.

                The Bucs will face Gardner-Webb in their third match of the weekend tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.

East Tennessee State 5, Charlotte 2

Doubles

1. Swain/Murray (Char) d. Ilina/Ziolkowska (ETSU) 8-3

2. Knight/Volobueva (ETSU) d. Hatch/Piacente (Char) 8-5

3. Batsula/Halim (ETSU) d. Robey/Lynas (Char) 8-0

Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2

Singles

1. Laura Swain (Char) d. Sandie Knight (ETSU) 6-1, 6-4

2. Masha Ilina (ETSU) d. Kathy Robey (Char) 7-5, 6-0

3. Ashleigh Murray (Char) d. Sylwia Ziolkowska (ETSU) 6-3, 6-2

4. Elena Volobueva (ETSU) d. Ali Piacente (Char) 6-7 (5), 6-1, 10-8

5. Olya Batsula (ETSU) d. Jennifer Hatch (Char) 6-1, 6-3

6. Muriel Sherwood (ETSU) d. Catherine Lynas (Char) 6-0, 6-1

Order of Finish: 6,5,3,1,2*,4

* - Clinching point