Tuesday, June 03, 2008

(June 3, 2008) - After finishing the season with a 14-10 overall record, and reaching the Atlantic Sun conference finals for the third consecutive season, the East Tennessee State University women's tennis team continued to make history this week earning its highest final rankings in school history, according to the ITA.

The Bucs finish the year ranked15th in the ITA Southeast region. This marked the fourth year in a row that ETSU has been ranked by the ITA at season's end, while being the only A-Sun member to receive a final ranking in 2008.

"Being the only conference member to be ranked at the end of the year is a great accomplish to our girls and program," said head coach Steve Brooks. "We played a tough non-conference schedule throughout the season and it was good to see that pay off."

Leading the way individually for ETSU was junior Yevgeniya Stupak. Stupak finished the year with an individual regional ranking of 14th, becoming the first-ever ETSU women's tennis player to be ranked in singles and doubles regionally at the same time. After claiming 23 victories, including wins over No. 39 Yvette Hyndman of Georgia and No. 17 Amanda Taylor of Vanderbilt, Stupak became the first Lady Buc to qualify for the NCAA singles championship last May.  

"If you look at how many great tennis players there are in Division I, it's a great honor to have a player like Yevgeniya ranked at the end of the year," said Brooks. "Yevgeniya had a solid year up until she got injured the last three weeks. It would have been fun to watch how things might have been different if she hadn't got hurt, but this is a season she can build on and be proud of, and hopefully she'll get a chance to play in the NCAAs again next year.

For all ETSU women's tennis and athletic news visit www.ETSUBucs.com.