The two-day road trip for women’s tennis saw back-to-back victories for the Bucs with a 6-1 win over Lipscomb and a 7-0 clinic at Belmont.
The weekend of play began for the Bucs at Lipscomb on Saturday, Feb. 3, with Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) continuing strong in No. 1 singles play with a 6-1 victory over Lipscomb’s Sasha Dobranos.
The Bucs would win five of the six singles matches and two of three in doubles play, once again led by the No. 1 pairing of Bakhodirova and teammate Mariya Shumeika (Minsk, Belarus). The pair defeated Lipscomb’s Sofiia Paladi and Anja Trbeznik with a dominant 6-2 win.
The only losses for the Bucs came in No. 2 singles play when Lipscomb’s Paladi defeated Shumeika 6-4, 6-3, as well as the No. 3 doubles match where Lipscomb’s Liza Diachenko and Perri Howard defeated the Bucs pair of Ralitsa Alexandrova (Sofia, Bulgaria) and Yunen Elizarraras (Cuernavaca, Mexico) in a single set match 4-5.
The Bucs were back in action the following day at Belmont and once again were led by the superb work of Bakhodirova in No. 1 singles play, with another statement win for the senior over Belmont’s Mariia Hlahola 6-3, 6-1.
The Bucs No. 1 doubles pair also repeated their performance from the day before by adding another win to their column.
The day ultimately belonged to ETSU’s Fernanda Carvajal, who was part of two shutout wins on the day following her play in the No. 3 singles slot that saw a 6-0, 6-0 win over Belmont’s Meredith Roberts. In No. 2 doubles play, Carvajal was joined by teammate Daniela Rivera (Maturin, Venezuela) in a 6-0 victory over Belmont.
The Bucs return to East Tennessee for back-to-back games when Appalachian State and Davidson come to Bristol.
The Bucs will face the Mountaineers on Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. and Davidson on Feb. 11 at 2 p.m.
For more information on ETSU women’s tennis, Visit ETSUBucs.com/wtennis.
