Needing to take care of business to stay in the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season title hunt, the ETSU (10-6, 7-1) women’s tennis team did just that by cruising past league rival Florida Gulf Coast 7-0 on Saturday at the FGCU Tennis Complex in Fort Myers, Fla.
With the win, the Lady Bucs now sit one match behind league-leading USC Upstate and Stetson.
ETSU opened play sweeping the doubles point as junior Yevgenyia Stupak and freshman Paula Jaime rolled past Eva Sambrano and Maggie Caulk 8-2, while senior Tara Byrne and freshman Karina Kedzo dropped Villemond and Evans 8-3 in No. 2 action. ETSU clinched the doubles point as sophomore Tara Sheets and senior Vita Moskaliova closed out Leah Johnson and Joanne Power at No. 3 winning 8-1.
“We played a lot cleaner today in doubles,” said head coach Steve Brooks. “It took a little bit of time for our girls to get use to playing in the Florida heat, but once we got adjusted we had strong performances. It helped that today we were able to sweep the points and finish the match just over two hours.”
After falling for only the second time all spring Thursday, No. 109-ranked Stupak rebounded in a big way in No. 1 singles play, dropping Eva Sambrano 6-0, 6-0. Fellow captain Tara Byrne then extended the Lady Buc advantage dropping Priscilla Villemond, 6-4, 6-2 and now sits only two wins away from becoming the all-time wins leader at ETSU.
After ETSU found itself with a 3-0 lead, the Lady Bucs continued to roll as both newcomers Kedzo and Jaime looked strong in both of their singles contests. Kedzo made quick work of Jen Evans, 6-2, 6-2 in No. 3 singles play, while Jaime dominated in her head-to-head match dropping Leah Johnson in straight sets 6-4, 6-0.
In its last two matches of the day ETSU wouldn’t let up as Tara Sheets ran her singles mark to 8-5 this season after defeating Brittany Wadsworth 6-0, 6-2, while Vita Moskaliova rolled through Joanne Power with indicial 6-1 set wins for her third singles victory.
“Overall I’m pleased with how the girls played today,” said Brooks. “I thought in singles play from top-to-bottom, we played solid and really forced our style of play.”
The Lady Bucs are back in action as they travel to Spartanburg, S.C. to face league-leading USC Upstate. The game is set to begin at 7 p.m. on April 7.

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