On Friday, the ETSU women’s tennis team took on the Mercer Bears in the first round of the SoCon Championship Tournament. Overall, ETSU is ranked second and Mercer is ranked seventh.
There was a 40-minute lightning delay, which allowed the Bucs to rest before taking on the rest of the matches.
The Bucs defeated Mercer 4-0 in the quarterfinals, which moved their season record to 18-2, while the Bears went 7-14.
ETSU’s doubles team of Marina Espana (Castellar Del Valles, Spain) and Ioanna Markesini (Athens, Greece) picked up a 6-1 victory over Roxy Bartz and Xandra Fougner of Mercer, which was the duo’s 15th win of the season.
Espana is currently undefeated, with a record of 18-0 this spring season. Against Bartz, she won 6-3 and 6-0.
In the singles matches, along with Espana, Melissa Esguerra (Derrimutt, Australia) and Ana Gerbasi (Caracas, Venezuela,) took home wins, as well.
Lyn Yee Choo (Kuching, Malaysia), Regina Nychytailova (Maripol, Ukraine) and Markesini were left with their matches unfinished.
The doubles matches brought pairs Nychytailova and Esguerra, as well as Espana, and Markesini wins. Choo and Gerbasi’s match was left unfinished.
On Saturday, the Bucs continued from their win against Mercer, defeating the Chattanooga Mocs, 4-0. Chattanooga was ranked third and has a current record of 14-8.
Choo and Gerbasi’s doubles match went unfinished, while duos Espana/Markesini and Nychytailova/Esguerra were victorious.
In the singles’ matches, Nychytailova, Markesini and Gerbasi had unfished matches, while Espana, Esguerra and Choo defeated their opponents.
ETSU was tasked with taking on fourth-seed Samford on Sunday in the finals round of the tournament. Samford defeated No. 1-ranked Furman for its place in the finals.
Last year, ETSU and Furman met at the championship, where the Bucs were defeated, 4-1. The Bucs and their fans were confident as they took on the Samford Bulldogs, once again, with hopes of being victorious to close out their 2016 season.
