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Gerber, Fonseca Advance To Finals In Day 1 Of Rice Classic
Sept. 25, 2009 HOUSTON - The sophomore tandem of Caroline Gerber and Marcela Fonseca won a pair of doubles matches to advance to the Flight 4 finals, and five Green Wave standouts won their opening singles matches, as the Tulane University women's tennis team opened play at the Rice Classic in fine fashion Friday at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. For the day, Tulane nearly broke even with a 4-6 mark in singles play and a 5-5 showing in doubles action. The tournament resumes on Saturday with the final round of doubles at 8:30 a.m. and round two of singles play at 9:30 a.m. The Rice Classic will conclude on Sunday, Sept. 27, with the final round of singles slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. The Gerber/Fonseca duo edged Sam Houston's Laura Peschke and Cally Woerner, 8-6, in the opening round and emerged victorious again in round two with an 8-4 decision over Texas-Arlington's Brittney Byrd and Maria Martinez-Romer. The Green Wave pair will play Channel McGregor and Claudia Hidalgo of SMU on Saturday for the Flight 4 Championship. Fonseca also advance in the front draw in singles action. Leading 5-0 over Peschke in Flight 6, Fonseca moved on as the Sam Houston Bearkat was forced to retire. Also moving on in singles play were sophomores Mariam Kurdadze, Lindsay Dvorak and Jessica Lange. Kurdadze downed DePaul's Anna Redesci in Flight 1, 6-3, 6-2 while Dvorak defeated Nicole Briceno of SMU, 6-3, 6-1, in Flight 4. Lange, meanwhile, posted a 6-2, 6-2 decision over Woerner in Flight 8. In doubles play, Kurdadze teamed with freshman Emma Levy to defeat Texas-San Antonio's Sarah Adams and Michaela Silva, 8-0, in Flight 1 before falling into the back draw with a narrow 9-8 (7-5) loss to Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarchikova of SMU in the second round.
Dvorak and sophomore Elizabeth Hamlin dropped their opening match Gia McNight and Katarina Milinkovic of DePaul, but bounced back in the second round to post an 8-2 win over Texas State's Andrea Giraldo and Gabriella Rojas in the back draw. Lange and fellow sophomore Sharon Siegel, meanwhile, defeated the tandem of Texas State's Jennifer Nowland and LSU's Sloane Mathis in the first round of Flight 4, 8-4, but dropped an 8-3 decision to McGregor and Hidalgo to fall into the back draw. Following the Rice Classic on Sunday, Tulane continues fall play on Oct. 23-26, in Auburn, Ala., at the ITA Southern Regionals. |
 
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