Women’s tennis continues to dominate

The ETSU women’s tennis team has been proving that they not only want to dominate the Atlantic Sun Conference championships come April, but they want to be known regionally and nationally. They started off strong with two big tournament wins. Their first win was in Nashville early February when they beat MTSU 4-1 at the Nashboro Village Athletic Club.

Senior Antonia Koloand and freshman Lyn Yee Choo followed up an ETSU doubles victory with straight-set wins against MTSU (1-4). Then junior Giulia Andreazza pulled out a victory in the No. 2 spot, in a second-set tiebreak, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). This is the way the lady bucs wanted to start their season and this great season opener set the tone for the rest of their season.

“All the girls have been fighting hard in their matches and by coming together as a team I think we will be able to beat some stronger schools.” Antonia said.

Mid February the lady bucs earned their first sweep of the 2013 season by dominating Libery 4-0, in Lynchburg Virginia. This win moved ETSU to 2-0 for the second time in the last six years. In the past when the bucs started this strong, they ended the season with the record of 15-7, won the Atlantic Sun Tournament, and competed against the University of North Carolina in the NCAA tournament in 2011. Salma Dahb and Sofia Espana won at No. 3, 8-5. The Lady Bucs then took the next three singles matches in straight sets to nail the victory, with Kolvou, Choo and Dahbi all winning.

“I believe we have a very solid team, who likes to work hard and therefore we are capable of reaching our goals. We have been playing good but there’s still room for improvement.” Sofia said.

After starting out at 2-0 the lady bucs looked to continue dominance as they traveled to Ohio to play Akron and Oregon. Unfortunately they fell close of that, but went out fighting. Akron won 4-3 but it wasn’t easy. The bucs won the doubles point and was on pace to continue their dominant win streak. Unfortunately, Akron fought back to win four of six singles points to upset the bucs and serve them their first loss of the season. After the tough loss to Akron they lost another close one to No.69, (8-0), Oregon ducks 4-3 to end their weekend in Ohio.

“As a team we have been really pushing ourselves and putting in all the hard work and I think this season will show.” Sophomore Kelsey Williams said.

Though the ETSU women’s team suffered two tough losses, they look to bounce back from this, and learn from their mistakes. Dominance is still their mission and winning the Atlantic Sun Championships is one of their main goals. With the record of now 2-2, the bucs still have a good start to their season.  Their next match is Friday at Unc-Asheville and Saturday at Appalachian state.