WINTER PARK – Florida Southern experienced a rough day in the opening round of the C.L. Varner Memorial Tournament, posting just two doubles wins while dropping each of the squad's seven singles matches.
In the Singles, Flight A, Sasha Nionova lost to Rollins' Teresa Kaiser when she retired after dropping the first set, 6-4. In FSC's other Flight A match, the Tars' Karly Hammond beat Linnea Skymberg, 7-5, 6-1. Nionova will get a bye in her Saturday consolation match and will automatically advance to Sunday's fifth place match. Skymberg will play Rollin's Savanna Fuller on Saturday at 12 pm for the right to play for fifth place on Sunday.
In Flight B, Lorena Rionda fell to Rollins' Carlye Goldman, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will play Kati Zaatini of Saint Leo on Saturday at noon in the consolation bracket. Nina Vucevic lost, 6-4, 6-1, to the Tars' Carli Davis and will face Rollins' Fabiana Vitanza Saturday at noon.
In Flight C, Carolyn Cureton was defeated, 6-0, 6-0, by Lynn's Alina Jane and will move to Saturday's noon match against Barry's Adriana Garrett. The Knight's Carolina Cuevas beat Katie Stanford, 6-2, 6-0. Stanford will play Rollin's Emma Wookey at 1:30 pm on Saturday.
In Florida Southern's lone match in Flight D, Shannon Griffin fell, 7-5, 6-0, to Rollins' Hayley Macpherson, and will get a bye into Sunday's fifth place match against the Tars' Katie Wookey.
In the Flight A of doubles, the Mocs' team of Vucevic and Rionda defeated Rollins' doubles team of Goldman and Zoe Monge, 8-4, but were downed, 8-0, by Lynn's pairing of Diana Bogolli and Rosalie Willig in their next match. Also in Flight A, Nionova and Skymberg won their first match, 8-3, over Johanna Olsson and Kaiser of Rollins but were beaten 9-8 (7) in their next match by the Tars' Vitanza and Fuller. Both FSC doubles team will face off Saturday at 9 am in the third place match.
In Flight B of doubles, FSC's Stanford and Cureton lost, 8-4 to Emma Wookey and Hammond of Rollins and then fell, 8-1, to Saint Leo's Madeline Gauthier and Coralie Pesenti.
