Friday, February 25, 2005

ELON, N.C. (Feb. 25, 2005) - The East Tennessee State women's tennis team picked up their first conference win of the season on the road with a 7-0 win in its conference opener against Elon on Friday afternoon. The Bucs improve to 6-2 overall, 1-0 SoCon with the win, while the Phoenix falls to 1-3, 0-2 with the loss.

            "Today was our first match outdoors and we started out flat, but we were able to come out solid in the end," stated head coach Steve Brooks. "Elon is a good team and today's match was much closer than the score shows."

            The Bucs started the match by picking up the doubles point. Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) and Gemma Halim (Jakarta, Indonesia) of ETSU took the first win at No. 3 over Diana Pulupa and Alli Benton 8-3. Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Sylwia Ziolkowska (Warsaw, Poland) then clinched the point for the Bucs with an 8-6 win at No. 1 over Evin Prelec and Kelly Fleck. Rounding up doubles action, Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) and Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) won 8-3 at No. 2 over Elizabeth Kernodle and Melissa Holland.

            In singles, ETSU collected all six wins including four split set victories from Volobueva at No. 1 (7-5, 6-3), Ilina at No. 2 (3-6, 6-1, 6-4), Zilkowska at No. 3 (6-4, 3-6, 6-2), Knight at No. 4 (3-6, 6-1, 6-0), Batsula at No. 5 (6-3, 6-0), and Sherwood at No. 6 (6-1, 4-6, 6-1).

                The Bucs continue their weekend action as they travel to face future Atlantic Sun opponent Campbell University Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.

            "It will be a tough first match against Campbell," commented Brooks. "Hopefully our confidence playing outside from today will carry over to tomorrow's match."

East Tennessee State 7, Elon 0

Doubles

1. Ilina/Ziolkowska (ETSU) d. Prelec/Flick (Elon) 8-6

2. Knight/Volobueva (ETSU) d. Kernodle/Holland (Elon) 8-3

3. Batsula/Halim (ETSU) d. Pulupa/Benton (Elon) 8-3

Order of Finish: 3,1,2

Singles

1. Elena Volobueva (ETSU) d. Evin Prelec (Elon) 7-5, 6-3  

2. Masha Ilina (ETSU) d. Kelly Fleck (Elon) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4

3. Sylwia Ziolkowska (ETSU) d. Elizabeth Kernodle (Elon) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2

4. Sandie Knight (ETSU) d. Melissa Holland (Elon) 3-6, 6-1, 6-0

5. Olya Batsula (ETSU) d. Diana Pulupa (Elon) 6-3, 6-0

6. Muriel Sherwood (ETSU) d. Alli Benton (Elon) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1

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

* - Clinching Point