East Tennessee State’s men’s tennis team garnered back-to-back home wins this weekend following Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Winthrop at the ETSU Tennis Center. The Buccaneers (4-5), who defeated Virginia Intermont Friday, took all three doubles matches versus Winthrop and used some key wins at the bottom of the lineup to topple the Eagles (4-2).
“Winthrop is a pretty tough team to beat,” ETSU head coach Yaser Zaatini said. “I’m happy with the way our guys played and I’m proud of the way our captains stepped up.”
Seniors Marcos Pavlovich and Francisco Diaz defeated both their singles opponents at the No. 1 and No. 6 slots, respectively. Pavlovich defeated the Eagles’ Clayton Almeida 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, while Diaz took care of Gustavo Zanette in straight sets 7-6, 6-2. Moises Serrano claimed a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Rodrigo Cezar at No. 5.
The Eagles only two wins of the afternoon came at No. 2 and No. 4 singles. Michal Kwiecien handed Alejandro Salazar a 7-6, 6-0 loss at the No. 2 postion and Francisco Fiuri suffered a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 loss to Winthrop’s Adam Narczewski at No. 4. The match at No. 3 singles between the Buccaneers’ Diego Iglesias and Gary Kilduff was not finished.
In doubles action, the No. 1 tandem of Pavlovich and Salazar went on to knock off the duo of Almeida-Narczewski, 8-6. At No. 2, Iglesias-Serrano beat Winthrop’s Zanette-Cezar, 8-3, while Fiuri and ETSU teammate Federico Ochoa took an 8-2 decision over Kwiecien and Gary Kilduff at the No. 3 slot.
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ETSU’s women’s tennis team rallied back from an early deficit Saturday afternoon, but fell short in the end in losing to Winthrop 4-3 at the ETSU Tennis Center.
“We dropped the doubles point and we didn’t start strong, but we played a very good team today,” Buccaneer coach Steve Brooks said. “They are consistently in the national rankings and one of the top teams in their conference.”
ETSU’s lone doubles win came at the No. 2 position, as Gemma Halim and Jessica Irey were victorious over Renata Barreto and Renata Caceres, 8-6. Sylwia Ziolkowska and Aimee Villavicencio fell to Jenny Andrade and Ana Maria Simanca 8-4 at No. 1 and at No. 3 Courtney McInnis and Jewel Aldea were defeated 8-0 by Winthrop’s Paula Takahashi and Danielle Moita.
Ziolkowska defeated Barreto 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the No. 1 singles match. At No. 2 singles, it was the sophomore Halim who was victorious over Andrade, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Irey then used a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 decision to oust Caceres at the No. 3 position.
The difference in the match for the Bucs ended up being three straight-set losses at the bottom of the lineup. McInnis fell to Takahashi 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4,Tatiana Arrianran lost her No. 5 singles match to the Eagles’ Moita 6-2, 6-4, and Villavicencio was defeated by Simanca at the No. 6 slot, 6-2, 6-0.

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