BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – IUP saw a pair of singles players move to the quarterfinals and two of its doubles teams advance to the semifinals after the opening day of action at the 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Tennis Championships Saturday at Bloomsburg University.
 
SINGLES BRACKET | DOUBLES BRACKET

Moving on to quarterfinal singles matchups were sophomore Julia Newman and junior Katya Minchenkova. They also moved onto the semifinals in doubles play in addition to Mariana Valenzuela and Thais Andreotti.
 
Newman is the top seeded singles player in the championships and picked up a pair of wins Saturday. She defeated Clarion's Alivia Arnold 6-2, 6-1 in the round of 32 and Carolin Ganahi from Cal 6-1, 6-4 to move to the quarters.
 
Minchenkova opened with an easy 6-0, 6-0 win over East Stroudsburg's Quinn McCluskey, and then rallied for a 6-2, 6-7 (7), 10-8 superbreak win over Slippery Rock's Lois Page.
 
Newman will face Mercyhurst's Athina Tsagkarski and Minchenkova will battle Joe Weisen of Cal in Sunday's quarterfinal round.
 
In the doubles bracket, Newman and Minchenkova defeated Marina Zardet and Aubri Stetina of ESU 8-2, and Cassidy Calmer and Vitoria Nery of Bloomsburg 8-4. They'll face Kayla Frost and Sangeeta Roopan of Mercyhurst in the semifinals.
 
The other semifinal will feature Valenzuela and Andreotti, who opened with an 8-2 win over Taylor Capoferri and Giovanna Bonito of Bloomsburg, before upsetting top seed Laura Lopez and Tatiana Batalla of Edinboro by a score of 8-0. They'll face Cal's Weisen and Ganahi in their matchup.
 
IUP doubles players are seeking the program's third straight appearance in the PSAC finals. Luise von Agris and Jarka Petercakova won the title in 2016.
 
Up next
Doubles semifinal matches begin at 9 a.m. Sunday with quarterfinal singles matches scheduled for 10:45 a.m.
 
Follow
For up-to-date game information, visit IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP women's tennis on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk and @IUPtennis.