DAYTONA BEACH - Florida Southern opened the fall portion of its women's tennis schedule here this weekend with several outstanding performances at the 2014 Embry-Riddle Open Invitational held at the Ambassador E. William Crotty Tennis Complex on the ERAU campus.
The event featured three singles flights and two doubles flights and comprised of players from three other in-state schools. In addition to FSC, the other three women's team that sent players to the event were Embry-Riddle, Bethune-Cookman and Rollins.
Senior Olivia Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.) represented the Mocs in the Gold Singles Flight as she posted a 1-2 record for the weekend. Spagnuolo fell in three sets on Friday to ERAU's Anna Gotz, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, before suffering a straight set loss Saturday to BCU's Chinatsu Kajiwara, 6-4, 6-2 and then concluded action on Sunday with a three-set win over Rollins' Johanna Olson, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
FSC had two players in the White Singles Flight as freshmen Shannon Griffin (Winter Haven, Fla.) and Katie Stanford (Lake Worth, Fla.), who each dropped all three of their matches. Griffin opened the event on Friday with a straight set loss to BCU's Gaby Chincilla, 6-0, 6-1, before falling on Saturday to ERAU's Ana Gonzalez, 6-2, 6-3 and then falling to Rollins' Carli Davis, 6-0, 6-0 on Sunday. Stanford opened with a 6-4, 6-1 loss on Friday to Davis, before falling in three sets on Saturday to ERAU's Jessica Lown, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 and then suffering a straight loss on Sunday to BCU's Ancia Ifill.
In the Blue Singles Flight, the Mocs were represented by junior Miroslava Mensikova (Hranice, Czech Republic) and freshman Cassie Eldredge (Peachtree City, Ga.) as Mensikova went 2-1 and Eldredge was 0-3. Mensikova opened the event with a 6-0, 6-1 setback to BCU's Adel Musina, before picking up a win in three sets on Saturday against ERAU's Kathryn Bock, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and then concluded the weekend with a straight set win over ERAU's Giovanna Tomiotto, 6-4, 6-2, while Eldredge fell on Friday to Tomiotto, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2), before suffering a straight set loss to Rollins' Katie Wookey, 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday and dropping a straight set decision on Sunday to ERAU's Meena Bennett.
Meanwhile, in the doubles competition, Spagnuolo and Mensikova posted a 2-1 record in the Gold Flight, while Eldredge and Stanford went 0-2 and Stanford and Griffin went 0-1 in the Blue Flight.
Spagnuolo and Mensikova opened the doubles portion with an 8-1 win on Friday over BCU's Chinchilla and Maria Goraz-Moreno, before falling 8-1 on Saturday to BCU's Maria Sablina and Mina Matsuba and then concluding the weekend with an 8-2 win on Sunday over ERAU's Gotz and Tomiotto.
Eldredge and Stanford opened the Blue Doubles Flight with an 8-1 setback on Friday to ERAU's Bock and Bennett, before dropping an 8-1 decision on Saturday to BCU's Ifill and Alejandra Vidal. Griffin and Eldredge dropped an 8-1 decision on Sunday to Rollins' Zoe Monge and Taylor Brown.
In addition to those three doubles teams, Griffin also was paired with Rollins' Carli Davis on Saturday and the pair collected an 8-0 victory over ERAU's Lown and Gonzalez in the Blue Flight.
FSC will return to action on Sept. 26-29 as they compete in the ITA Women's South Regional Championships at both the Wynee Warden Tennis Center and Beermann Tennis Center in Lakeland.
