The UTC women's tennis team had a strong first day at the 2012 UTC Steve Baras Fall Classic at the Champions Club. The Lady Mocs won 11 of 13 matches and have seven singles players still alive in the main draws.
Chattanooga was led by senior Jenna Nurik (Roswell, Ga.) and sophomore Kaylene Chadwell (Franklin, Tenn.). They came into the tournament ranked No. 58 in the nation and opened with an 8-2 win over UAB's Fernandez and Faught in the No. 1 Flight.
UTC went 4-0 in doubles matches, including Alex Flynn (Memphis, Tenn.) and Kayla Jones' (Memphis, Tenn.) win in the No. 2 Flight. They defeated Klyatchin and Heffner of Mercer 8-1. Sophomore Claire Mulyadi (Semarang, Indonesia) and Jovana Pecovski (Apitan, Serbia) had an 8-1 win over Lipscomb's Naruka and Panovec in the No. 3 Flight. Freshmen Kelsey Coots (Huntsville, Ala.) and Katie Polk (Woodstock, Ga.) team up for another win in the No. 3 Flight. They downed Lee's Yowarsky and North 8-0.
The Lady Mocs had seven singles wins on the day, beginning with Nurik in the No. 1 draw. She defeated UAB's Fernandez 6-4, 6-4. Chadwell also competed in No. 1, defeating Jacksonville State's Guasti 6-1, 6-2.
Flynn advanced in the No. 2 draw with a (6-1, 6-3) win over Lipscomb's Bellini, while Mulyadi was a (6-1, 6-1) winner over Mercer's Klyatchin in No. 3. Polk and Coots both had wins in the No. 4 draw while Jones had a win at No. 5.
"It was a good day for us," stated head coach Jeff Clark. "We started off strong in doubles and that carried over to doubles play. Our freshmen did well and our returning players had some solid results. We just need to keep the momentum going for the rest of the weekend and hopefully we can win some draws."Saturday's semifinals. Action resumes on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. (E.D.T.).