Friday, September 23, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. (September 23, 2005) - The ETSU women's tennis team had a productive day of competition, splitting the team up and playing in the first rounds of the Residence Inn North Wolfpack Invitational hosted by North Carolina State, as well as Steve Baras Fall Tennis Classic hosted by Chattanooga.

"I'm happy we were able to play strong competition to see where we are at," said head women's tennis coach Steve Brooks.  "We played tough matches today and we have tough ones tomorrow, but we are fighting right along with the best in the region."

Sandi Knight (Adamstown, Australia) had a first round bye as the number one seed in A2 singles before taking on Suggs of UNCG, winning 6-4, 6-4. Meanwhile, Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) lost to Leskosky of UGA, 6-4, 6-2 in A1 singles, while  Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) won her first match against Rogers of Western Carolina 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 before losing to Ivanov of UGA, 6-3, 6-2.

In B2 singles Tara Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) won 6-2, 6-1, against Graham of JMU before taking on Senkina of JMU, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to advance.

In the A1 doubles bracket, Volobueva/Knight lost to Jiskrvova/Kapininska of Hampton, 8-5 and in B1 doubles, Batsula/Byrne defeated Besedova/Thompson of Hampton, 8-5. 

ETSU sent two players to Chattanooga, where  Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) lost to Anna Lask, 6-4, 6-4, while Sylvia Ziolkowska (Warsaw, Poland) defeated Andrea Feichtinger, 6-3, 7-6.

Eighteen teams are scheduled to compete this weekend at the N.C. State event, including; Armstrong Atlantic State, Auburn, Campbell, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, East Tennessee State, Elon, Georgia, Hampton, High Point, James Madison, Liberty, NC State, UNC Greensboro, Western Carolina, Winthrop and Wofford.

Play continues tomorrow morning and wraps up on Sunday. For more information on Lady Bucs tennis, visit www.etsubucs.com/wtennis .