Singles also do well on first day of tournament
 All three doubles teams picked up victories as the University of Evansville women’s tennis squad completed the first day of the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships on Saturday at Wesselman Park.
Top doubles featured Diana Tkachenko and Nicoli Pereira defeating Drake’s Joely Lomas and Summer Brills by a final of 8-6. They advance to take on Veronika Golanova and Marcia Tere-Apisah of Illinois State on Sunday. At #2 doubles, the duo of Chieko Yamada and Theodora Soldatou defeated Bradley’s Aimee Manfredo and Ariel Dechter, 8-7 (6). They square off against Drake in the first doubles match of the day.
Capping off the perfect doubles day for UE were Daria Pentsova and Andjela Brguljan, who defeated Missouri State’s Alexia Meyer and Abbey Belote by a score of 8-5 in the third flight. They will take on Southern Illinois tomorrow.
Tkachenko capped off the perfect day at #2 singles, defeating DU’s Summer Brills, 6-1, 6-3. She will face Ting-Ya Hsu from Wichita State with a chance to advance to Monday’s championship match. Also earning a win was Soldatou, who beat Sydney Wolfe of UNI, 6-1, 7-6 (4). They faced each other in the opening round of fifth flight singles. Soldatou will face Malini Wijesinghe from Bradley on Sunday.
Pereira was the third UE player to win her opening singles tilt. In the sixth flight, she beat Aimee Manfredo of Bradley, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. She faces the Bears’ Alexia Meyer tomorrow with the winner moving onto the championship.
Andrea Pascual-Larrinaga and Chieko Yamada each won matches in their respective back draw on Saturday. Pascual-Larrinaga lost her opening match before beating UNI’s Gisela Kemper, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6). She moved onto the fifth place match of flight four. After falling to SIU, Yamada rebounded with a win over UNI’s Jieke Stroobant, 4-6, 6-0, 10-6. She played at the top flight.
Action cranks right back up on Sunday beginning at 9 a.m. at Wesselman Park. Admission is free.
