A pair of Lady Mocs advanced to the main draw of the 2012 USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships in West Lafayette, Ind., today. FreshmenKayla Jones (Memphis, Tenn.) and Jovana Pecovski (Apitan, Serbia) both won two singles matches to move out of the qualifying bracket.
Jones opened with a (6-2, 6-1) win over Miami's (Ohio) Ramona Costea. She followed that up with a three-set win against ETSU's Salman Dahbi (5-7, 6-3, 6-2).
Pecovski started with a tough, three-setter over Eastern Kentucky's Marcela Jimenez (6-4, 4-6, 6-2).
Her second win was a (6-4, 6-3) victory over Xavier's Kally Alkire.
Fellow freshmanKelsey Coots nearly made it into the main draw. Seeded second in the qualifying bracket, Coots won her first match (6-4, 6-1) over Butler's Konstantina Adami. She lost a hard-fought battle against MTSU's Nayara Moraes (6-4, 7-6 (4)) in the second round.
SophomoreClaire Mulyadi (Semarang, Indonesia) was also in singles action today. She lost her first round match to third seed Ashleigh Witte of Cincinnati (6-2, 6-2).
Neither of the two doubles teams from UTC that were trying to qualify for the main draw were able to advance. Pecovski and juniorAlexa Flynn (Memphis, Tenn.) lost to fourth-seeded Valentina Schneider and Alex Tachovsky of Louisville (8-5).
Coots and fellow freshmanKatie Polk (Woodstock, Ga.) won their first round match (8-5) against Xavier's Daniella Patton and Andrea Wolf. They lost in the second round to Nimisha Mohan and Alix Thurman from Miami (Ohio) (8-6).
Flynn, seniorJenna Nurik (Roswell, Ga.) and sophomore Kaylene Chadwell (Franklin, Tenn.) are in the main draw for singles with Jones and Pecovski. Nurik and Chadwell are also competing in doubles, along with Jones and Mulyadi.
A complete and updated draw is available at the top of the page. Be sure to also check out the link to the online results. Results will be updated on this page throughout tomorrow's action.