Women's tennis team has solid first day at Region VIII Tournament

The Eastern Florida State College women's tennis team had a solid first day at the NJCAA Region VIII Tournament Friday at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs.

Freshman Tsveti Trifonova advanced to the championship match in Flight 2 of singles, defeating Broward's Angela Rinaldi 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals.

Then Trifonova faced Hillsborough's Valentina Dancenco, who had beaten Trifonova twice during the regular season. But on Friday it was Trifonova who picked up the win, defeating Dancenco 6-4, 6-4. The Bulgaria native will play ASA Miami's Tatiana Simova in the championship match at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The doubles team of Emma Othmer and Valeria Arevalo picked up a win in the quarterfinals of Flight 2, defeating St. Petersburg's Barbara Damini and Karla Ortega 6-3, 7-5 on Friday. The duo will play ASA Miami's Molly Helgesson and Irina Lapustina in the semifinals on Saturday.

Othmer also won a quarterfinal match in Flight 5 singles, defeating State College of Florida's Britain Botsford but lost in the semifinals to Hillsborough's Renata Gonzalez, 5-7, 3-6.

No. 1 singles player Vasavi Ganesan was winning the third set 5-3 of her first match of the day when she injured her foot forcing her to retire.

Ganesan did try to play through it in the afternoon, teaming with Trifonova in the first Flight of doubles. The duo lost to St. Petersburg's Ann Kathrin Wiritesch and Saki Matsubara in quarterfinals,6-4, 4-6, 6-4.