NAIA Women's Tennis Championships | Day Two
MOBILE, Ala.- Keiser (Fla.), Lindsey Wilson (Ky.), Tennessee Wesleyan and William Carey (Miss.), each with one loss this season, advanced Wednesday to the quarterfinals of the 45th annual UTR Sports NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship.
Also winning in the second round were Cumberlands (Ky.) and three Louisiana teams: Xavier, Loyola and LSU Alexandria. Six of the eight top seeds advanced.
Quarterfinal matches will begin at 1 p.m. CDT Thursday at Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center. Admission is free for all rounds; the tournament will conclude Saturday.
• Keiser (Fla.) 4, Coastal Georgia 0: Violet Apisah, No. 1 in the ITA/NAIA singles and doubles rankings, clinched the doubles point and the match. Violet and her sister, Patricia Apisah, won 6-2 against Karlie Kerley and Gabriella Rodrigues. Violet won 6-0, 6-0 in singles against Kerley. The Seahawks (21-1), the No. 1 seed, won their 12th in a row and reached the quarterfinals for the ninth consecutive time. Coastal Georgia, the No. 17 seed, finished 12-8.
• Lindsey Wilson 4, Cumberland (Tenn.) 0: Javiera Verdugo and Blanca Trillo won in doubles and singles for the Blue Raiders. Trillo clinched at No. 5 with her 6-2, 6-0 victory against Juanita Mendez. Lindsey Wilson, 17-1 and the No. 2 seed, won its 14th in a row and reached the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. Cumberland, the No. 18 seed, finished 11-10.
• Tennessee Wesleyan 4, Goshen (Ind.) 1: The Lady Bulldogs won four singles matches and reached the quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive year. Ana Serrano clinched at No. 5 with a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Marin Kawano. Tennessee Wesleyan, the No. 3 seed, is 19-1 and has won 17 straight. Goshen, seeded 14th, finished 16-8.
• William Carey (Miss.) 4, Stanton (Calif.) 0: The Lady Crusaders, 17-1 and the No. 4 seed, won their 17th in a row. Victoria Vieten and Li Hsien Lin won in doubles and singles. Tiffany Chang clinched with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 5 against Cheyenne Houkes. Stanton, seeded 20th and in its first NAIA season, finished 10-6.
• Cumberlands (Ky.) 4, SCAD Savannah (Ga.) 2: The Patriots, 17-5 and seeded ninth, advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time. Bryndis Rosa and Haruna Kojima won in doubles and singles. Liu clinched by defeating Jessica Johnson 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6. SCAD Savannah, seeded eighth, finished 8-7.
• Xavier (La.) 4, SCAD Atlanta (Ga.) 3: The Gold Nuggets, 19-7 and seeded fifth, won four singles matches, erased a 3-1 deficit and advanced to the quarterfinals for the eighth consecutive time. Sophomore Valeria Ortega trailed 5-2 in a third-set tiebreaker before defeating Manuella Eloundou Nga 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) at No. 4. SCAD Atlanta's Shalimar Talbi and Adrianna Kluska, No. 2 in ITA/NAIA doubles, won 6-2 against fourth-ranked McKenna Wheatley and Maja Brnic. SCAD Atlanta, seeded 12th, finished 10-4.
• Loyola (La.) 4, Southeastern (Fla.) 3: The Wolf Pack, 10-7 and the No. 11 seed, reached the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. Avery Frierson clinched at No. 2 with an 0-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory against Isabella Bolivar. Frierson and Adele Fereres won in doubles and singles for Loyola. Southeastern, the No. 6 seed, finished 14-6.
• LSU Alexandria 4, Marian (Ind) 3: The Generals, 10-4 and seeded seventh, rallied from a 3-2 deficit with a pair of three-set victories to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2022 and the fifth time overall. Lucie Ivanova won 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 at No. 3 against Michelle Irigoyen to tie the match, then freshman Esthella Valentina Gonzalez Saiza clinched by defeating Paloma Caceres Villalba 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 at No. 6. The Knights, the No. 10 seed, finished 17-7.
Quarterfinal pairings — 1 p.m. CDT
No. 1 Keiser (Fla.) (21-1) vs. No. 9 Cumberlands (Ky.) (17-5)
No. 4 William Carey (Miss.) (17-1) vs. No. 5 Xavier (La.) (19-7)
No. 3 Tennessee Wesleyan (19-1) vs. No. 11 Loyola (La.) (10-7)
No. 7 LSU Alexandria (La.) (10-4) vs. No. 2 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) (17-1)
