Womens tennis edged by Furman in SoCon Tournament (Contributed/ETSU Athletics)

The ETSU women’s tennis team kicked off their 2025 Southern Conference Tournament run with a dominant 4-0 sweep over No. 7 seed Samford on Thursday afternoon at The Champions Club in Chattanooga.

The Bucs didn’t miss a beat, heating up and grabbing the momentum, securing the doubles point with a pair of 6-2 wins. Jana Rovira and Julia Millan took down Margaret Jaraczewski and Hailey Troup, while Ralitsa Alexandrova and Ksenija Rage took care of Eleni Liakonis and Meredith Taylor.

In the singles matches, SoCon Freshman of the Year Ksenija Rage continued her dominance, coasting to a 6-1, 6-0 win to put ETSU up 2-0. The Bucs went on to finish up and clinch their matches with Daniela Rivera coming out with  a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Emily Surcey and Ralitsa Alexandrova rounded things out with a 6-0, 6-3 win. 

Between the singles and doubles matches of the day, four went unfinished.

This dominant shutout marked another strong outing for the Lady Bucs. The women sent the Samford Bulldogs home, ending their season with a 9-14 record following the loss. 

Following the dominant win against the Bulldogs, the Bucs had another very successful outing against the Wofford Terriers. The women went on to claim a 4-2 victory over the Terriers, setting the Bucs up with a 14-8 record. Similar to the shutout over Samford, ETSU got hot with the doubles points securing 6-4, 6-0 victories. This win secured the women a spot in the SoCon Tournament Final. 

In the final the women faced off against Furman and ultimately fell just short, losing the match 4-3. The loss ended ETSU’s season with a record of 14-9. Unlike the previous matches where the women got a hot start, they fell behind when the Paladins took the first point of the doubles matches. Taking a victory of 7-5 and 7-6. The Paladins kept the momentum and took the first point in the singles match due to Jesse Dawson winning a match 7-5, 6-4. 

The Bucs responded with victories from Julia Millan 6-3, 6-3 and Ksenija Rage 6-2, 6-3 tying everything up at 2-2. Following that, Daniela Rivera was clutch in a singles match to take home a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win, ultimately giving the Bucs their first lead of the day. Paladins Macy Hitchcock evened the score with a 7-6, 6-2 win, putting the match at 3-3. Everything came down to a singles match between ETSU’s Alessandra Caceres and Furman’s Marissa Pennings. Pennings took the first set 6-2, but Caceres was a tough opponent in the second set. Caceres took a 6-4 victory, leaving everything up to one final set. Pennings won the match 6-2 to crown the Paladins Socon Champions.

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