East Tennessee State University Team Page
MACON, GA. (Jan. 13, 2009) – After being announced as a nationally ranked program by Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), a week ago, the preseason accolades continued Wednesday as the ETSU men’s tennis team was picked to win both the Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season and Tournament championships according to the poll voted on by the league’s head coaches.
The 62nd ranked Bucs have been a dominate force since ETSU joined the A-Sun in 2005. Head coach Yaser Zaatini’s Bucs have won four consecutive A-Sun Regular season titles, while earning three straight tournament championships. In the process the top-seeded Bucs enter the spring conference season with a 34 match A-Sun winning streak.
““It’s an honor for our program to be picked to finish first,” said Zaatini. “We sincerely appreciate the respect that all the coaches have shown for our team. I believe in our team, but I also understand that if there ever was a gap in years past it has been closed now. There are a handful of teams that can actually win the conference and we understand that well. This year will be a huge challenge for our squad, but we have a great group of guys that are ready to step up and compete as hard as we ever had. “
The Bucs who finished with a perfect 9-0 mark in league action a season ago received eight of the 11 first place votes for a total of 118. Conference rivals USC Upstate and Stetson were both picked second with 102 votes, while Belmont and North Florida rounded out the top five.
Individually, ETSU returns a strong lineup from this fall as No. 51 ranked freshman Jesus Bandres (Caracas, Venezuela), joins fellow teammates juniors No. 82 Grega Teraz (Mojstrana, Slovenia), and No. 89 Charles Bottoni (Bois Guillaume, France), with three individual ITA rankings.
In addition to the singles players the Bucs boast a pair of ranked doubles teams in sophomore Ofir Weintraub (Rishon Le Zion, Israel), and senior Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Columbia), who are tied for No. 39 in the ITA preseason poll, while the duo of Bandres and sophomore Sander Gille (Kuringen, Belgium), enter the new season ranked at No. 52.
Below is a breakdown of the voting and rankings of this season’s A-Sun Preseason Poll.
2010 A-Sun Men’s Tennis - Preseason Coaches’ Poll
Rank School (First Place Votes) Votes
|
1.
|
ETSU
|
(8) 118
|
|
2.
|
Stetson
|
(1) 102
|
|
|
USC Upstate
|
(1) 102
|
|
4
|
UNF
|
88
|
|
5.
|
Belmont
|
73
|
|
6.
|
Campbell
|
72
|
|
7.
|
Mercer
|
44
|
|
8.
|
Jacksonville
|
41
|
|
9.
|
FGCU
|
38
|
|
10.
|
Kennesaw State
|
27
|
|
11.
|
Lipscomb
|
21
|
Tournament Champion: ETSU (7 votes)
Preseason Player of the Year: Davy Sum (Campbell)
For more information on the ETSU men’s tennis program please visit www.ETSUBucs.com.
