LAKELAND - Florida Southern Women's Tennis team opened up play here Thursday in the USTA/ITA South Regional Championships at the Beermann Family Tennis Center by advancing two of its singles players into the round of 16 and having one of its doubles team advance to the quarterfinals after the first day of action at the four day event.
The Moccasins, who are hosting both the men's and women's South Regionals this year, had four players competing for the women as all of the teams (men and women) were limited to just four entries per team per gender. The four women's competitors for the Mocs in the tournament are sophomore Magda Riutort (Petra, Spain), junior Sabine Goge (Cesis, Latvia) and junior Joalis Dominguez (Vero Beach, Fla.), while sophomore Olivia Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.) and junior Laura Wichmann (Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany) joined Goge and Riutort in doubles action.
Thursday's first day of action opened with two rounds of doubles play as Goge and Riutort, who are seeded No. 2, had a bye in the first round and then picked up an 8-4 win in the second round against Saint Leo's tandem of Maria Benkraine and Coralie Pesenti. In addition to Goge and Riutort, Spagnuolo and Wichmann picked up an 8-6 first round win over Palm Beach Atlantic's Leyla Taracena and Veena Vasquez, before they fell 8-3 to Barry's No. 3 seeded tandem of Isabela Miro and Linda Fritchken.
Following doubles action, all 12 teams played two rounds of singles beginning with 32 first round matches. In the first round, Nunnemann fell in straight sets to West Alabama's Jill Furlong (6-4, 6-3), while Dominguez posted a three-set win over Nova Southeastern's Luisa Pintado (5-7, 6-1, 6-2). The Mocs had three players compete in the second round as Dominguez fell in three sets to West Florida's No. 5 seed Giovana Patitucci (2-6, 6-2, 6-4), while Goge, who is seeded No. 5, earned a straight set win over Valdosta State's Julianna Boehm (6-0, 6-3) and Riutort, who is seeded No. 4, picked up a straight set win over Florida Tech's Abbey Keister (7-6, 6-1).
"I thought we had a very good first day of play," Mocs head coach Trish Riddell said. "I thought everything went very smoothly today."
Goge and Riutort were the only two Mocs to remain in the winner's bracket as they will play in the round of 16 of singles on Friday afternoon as Goge will face Saint Leo's Adrianna Daszkiewicz and Riutort will face No. 9 seeded Elissa Decampli of Rollins, while Nunnemann will play against West Alabama's Natalia Cardenas in the second round of the singles consolation bracket.
Meanwhile, in doubles play, Goge and Riutort will meet Florida Tech's Kristina Huba and Stephanie Dohner on Friday at 8:30 a.m. in the doubles quarterfinals. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday and the finals will be played on Sunday.
On Friday, the women's teams will move over to FSC's Wynee Warden Tennis Center and the men will move to the Beermann Family Tennis Center. All of the men's and women's matches will be held at the Wynee Warden Complex on both Saturday and Sunday.
The singles and doubles champions of the South Regional Championship will advance to the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships on Oct. 11-14 at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala. The USTA/ITA National Small College Championships are comprised of the eight regional champions (and/or at-large selections) from NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community Colleges.