The men’s and women’s tennis teams of ETSU had their first tournaments of the fall season this past weekend.
The women’s team travelled to Virginia Tech for the Hokie Fall Invite.
“It was really great a lot of matches in, that was the main goal was to get out and play. We had some great individual performances. I was very pleased for it being our first tournament and getting back from the summer for how we played,” said head coach Ricardo Rojas.
In the singles, Maroon draw junior Maria Fernanda Carvajal (Queretaro, Mexico) won all four of her matches and won the title in the finals against Karly Friedland from Penn State. The score for the game was (6-3, 6-3) Carvajal.
Junior Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) won the first two rounds of her singles play. The first match against Gabriela Davidescu from VCU scored (6-7(8), 6-4, 6-2) Bakhodirova, and the second match (6-1, 6-2) against Yvonna Zuffova from Penn State.
“As the first tournament of the semester, it was good. We played good as a team, we supported each other. I think that’s the most important thing, to build for the spring. I think we started very well, and I’m looking forward to the next tournaments,” said Bakhodirova.
The men split up the team and took a portion to the Duke Bonk Invite and others to the UNCW Invitational.
“From my end, it was really good. For the first tournament it was actually better than we’re used to because sometimes it takes them a little bit going,” said head coach Martin Stiegwardt about the team that went to Duke. “Notable things, Frazier, who was pretty hurt all year last year, had a really good weekend. He finished in singles 3-1 and beat two players from Duke and a player from UNC.”
At the Duke Bonk Invite, sophomore Thiago Pernas (Buenos Aires, Argentina) lost his first singles match but went on to win the last three matches. Taking wins against Joseph Wayand from NC State, Gray Voelzke from VCU, and Connor Enslin from Gardner-Webb University.
The team at the UNCW Seahawk Invitational consisted of four freshmen competing in their first collegiate match.
