JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The ETSU women’s tennis team officially punched its ticket to the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship on Monday, as the NCAA announced the brackets with ETSU included for the first time since 2016.
 
During Monday’s selection show, the NCAA revealed that ETSU would be heading to the Columbus, Ohio, Regional to face in-state foe Vanderbilt on Friday, May 5, at Ohio State University. Ohio State is the No. 10 seed and will face Xavier on the other side of the regional bracket.
 
ETSU and Vanderbilt faced off last season in Nashville, Tennessee, with the Commodores winning a competitive match by a 5-2 final back on Feb. 4, 2022. Vanderbilt was receiving votes at the time, while ETSU went on to a 17-9 overall record.
 
ETSU earned its spot in this year’s NCAA tournament by sweeping all three rounds of the Southern Conference Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last weekend, culminating in a 4-0 win over defending champion Furman in the final round.
 
The Bucs finished the 2023 spring season with a 19-7 overall record, including a ranked neutral-site win over No. 72 Yale back in March. ETSU ended the regular season with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Furman to decide the regular-season champion but emphatically avenged that loss with a 4-0 statement win for the tournament championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
 
The Bucs are led by SoCon Player of the Year Laylo Bakhodirova from the top spot, who owns an 18-3 singles record and a 16-7 doubles record alongside partner Mariya Shumeika. The duo earned first-team all-conference honors.
 
Sophomore Daniela Rivera has been on a tear for ETSU, riding a 13-match singles win streak and a 10-match doubles win streak to a 21-3 singles record and second-team all-conference singles selection. She won SoCon Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors with a 6-0 record over three rounds, including the match-clinching point in the championship final to defeat Furman. She and Maria Fernanda Carvajal earned first-team all-conference honors with an 18-4 record.
 
Carvajal was also named first-team all-conference with Bakhodirova, owning a 15-6 overall record in singles and an undefeated mark in league matches. Last season, Carvajal was one of two players to score a singles point at Vanderbilt with a win at the No. 3 spot.
 
Emilia Alfaro, Yunuen Elizarraras and Ralitsa Alexandrova round out the roster with a combined 29 singles wins this season. Head coach Ricky Rojas leads the Bucs with over 100 wins as a head coach and three consecutive SoCon Coach of the Year awards to his name. He enters his first NCAA tournament as a head coach.