Titans Drop Home Opener to St. Petersburg

The ball didn't bounce Eastern Florida's way on Friday as the Titans women's tennis team inaugurated the new Melbourne Campus courts but first-year head coach Jerry Thor came away with some positives.

The Titans fell 6-3 to nationally fifth-ranked St. Petersburg College with singles victories going to No. 1 Katharina Drebka, No. 5 and captain Nicole Trio and No. 6 Ann-Kathrin Zilles.

Drebka defeated An Tagashira 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 (tiebreaker); Trio defeated Jennifer Camacho 6-4, 6-1 and Zilles beat Anna Olsen 6-0, 6-0.

The victories though couldn't overcome the 3-0 deficit Eastern Florida faced coming out of doubles where Annaleigh Collings and Ana Cristina Orozco lost 8-0 to Tagashira and Kokoro Chishaki; Trio and Giulianna Hull lost 8-5 to Anita Detlava and Mariya Yatsenko and Drebka and Zilles lost 8-5 to Olsen and Camacho.

Collings lost 6-0, 6-1 in singles to Yatsuko; Orozco lost 6-1, 6-0 to Chisaki and Hull lost 6-4, 6-0 to Detlava.

"We need to get better at doubles," Thor said. "We need to perform at doubles. Going into singles being down 1-2 or 0-3 is going to be challenging.

"It was great to see (Drebka) gutting out the win. She played one of the top players in the state and in the country and again comes through with a big win. I look forward to what she can accomplish the rest of the way.

"Our captain Nicole continues to get it done. I'm very proud of the work she puts in in practice and it shows on game. Our bottom of the lineup is strong and we're relying on that and they came through and delivered.

"Looking forward to the rest of the team performing at each spot and hopefully we can stay competitive."

Local product and sophomore Trio was nearly at a loss for words following her victory.

"It's awesome," said the Satellite High grad and second-year player. "It's a privilege and an honor, it's so awesome, I can't even describe it. It's unbelievable," she added about playing on the new courts.

The Titans, 2-2 overall and 1-2 in NJCAA Region 8, return to action at 2 p.m. Saturday hosting Florida State College Jacksonville in the visitor's season opener. Admission is free.

WEFS-TV will telecast the No. 2 doubles match live beginning at 2 p.m. and it will be streamed live at www.efsctitans.com/webcast