Sunday, April 04, 2010

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 3, 2010) – For the second consecutive season the ETSU women’s tennis team wrapped up the Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship as the 75th-ranked Lady Bucs grounded 60th-ranked conference rival North Florida 5-2 Saturday afternoon at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center in Johnson City.

ETSU – who was picked second in the preseason by the league’s coaches – dominated the majority of the match against the Lady Ospreys. After jumping out to a 3-1 lead, junior transfer Kelly Holtzhausen (Johannesburg, South Africa) clinched the title after defeating UNF’s Raquel Castro 7-6, 7-5 at the No. 2 singles position.

“Well first I’m just happy for the girls,” said head coach Steve Brooks. “I’ve said all season that this is the best team I’ve coached since I came to ETSU. Every one of our ladies have worked so hard in practice and I know they’ve learned a lot as we’ve played throughout this season. North Florida (17-2, 8-1 A-Sun) is a great team. We knew coming in to this match that they are an emotional squad that isn’t going to give us anything so I was so proud to see our players fight for every point and keep their composure as the pressure mounted.”

As play got underway the Lady Bucs (18-3, 9-0 A-Sun) took a huge step in the momentum category winning two out of the three doubles matches. After senior Yevgeniya Stupak and Holtzhausen lost at No. 1, the ETSU sophomore team of Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) and Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) rallied back with an 8-6 victory over Melanie Aquirre and Danielle Day.

The Lady Bucs then took the 1-0 lead as freshman Diana Navrosksta (Kyiv, Ukraine) and junior Tara Sheets (Gate City, Va.) dropped Lauren Holton and Victoria Krook, 8-4.