Three days of travel paid off for ETSU women’s tennis this weekend as they enjoyed victories over their three opponents this weekend.
Leaving early Friday morning the Lady Bucs began their travel to North Carolina where they played their first SoCon matches of the season.
Elon University was their first match and while the doubles matches all started out close, the Bucs came through with convincing victories at all three positions.
With this match also being the first of the season outdoors, the Bucs took some time to get a feel for the conditions dropping sets at the No. 2, 3, 4 and 6 positions, but all managed to come through with wins making the overall score 7-0.
Up next on Saturday afternoon was a match against Campbell University. The Bucs were ready for a tough fight after the doubles matches were fought out hard with a win at No.3 and a loss at No.1.
The pairing of Knight and Bolebueva at No. 2 went down 6-2 in their doubles at the No. 2 position, before coming back and winning the next six games for an 8-6 victory to secure the doubles point.
After hard fought doubles matches and slower conditions than usual, the Bucs knew they needed to stay focused and play tough in order to get through without any losses in the singles.
Batsula was the first to finish at No. 5 in one of the quickest matches of the season, while dropping her first set at No. 3, Ziolkowska won her second and thirds sets without dropping a game, clinching the win for the Bucs.
Their win over Campbell was their second 7-0 victory of the weekend.
Masha Ilina led the Bucs to their second SoCon win on Sunday morning in their match against UNG-G.
After winning all three doubles and Batsula and Halim winning quickly at No. 5 and 6, Ilina made a comeback from 3-0 in her first set to win 6-4 6-1 at No. 2 and secure the win for the Bucs.
Ziolkowska also won a three set match at No. 3 while Volebueva and Knight lost at the No. 1 and 4 positions respectively. With their 5-2 win over UNC-G the Bucs are currently at first place in the Southern Conference.
Gemma Halim said that it was important to get these early conference wins. “I think we have had a good start to our conference matches and if we continue to work hard and play consistently we will do well,” said Halim.

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