Friday, October 4, 2002

FIU women compete at Gator Fall Classic

IU's Mei Ly (Miami/Coral Gables) and Christine Suard picked up opening-round victories at the Gator Fall Classic at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, but were ousted in second-round play.

The classic featured performers from 10 colleges and universities from around Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

Playing Flight A Singles, Ly outlasted Troy State's Laura Alacon in three sets, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, before falling to No. 41 nationally-ranked Mari Toro of Miami, 6-4, 7-6 (2). Suard easily beat Amira Samara of UCF, 6-2, 6-0, but lost to Florida Atlantic's Maria Aguirre-Gomez, 6-1, 6-0, in the second round.

FIU other Flight A performer, freshman Druna Discordia was a first-round casualty at the hands of Julie Pecastaing from UCF, 6-4, 6-4, and the Golden Panthers freshman Courtney Jonson lost her opening-round Flight B match, 6-2, 6-2, to Florida State's Amberly Tantee.

Doubles victories were also hard to come by for FIU. In Flight A, Ly and Suard lost to UCF's Pecastaing and Mirieke Gunawan, 8-3, and the split team of Miami's Sara Robbins and Florida's Natalie Mikolich outlasted Discordia and Jonson, 8-5.

The Golden Panthers final competition of the fall is Oct. 25-28 at the ITA Regional in Mobile, Ala.