Paula's Cruise On Day One of Nationals

The dominance continued on the big stage this afternoon in Sumter, South Carolina for Lady Saints Paula Lopez and Paula Coyos as the duo went 2-0 in doubles together to march on to the National Championship match on Friday while Lopez won her 1st round match in singles to advance to Friday's semifinal round.

 

Lopez and Coyos entered the tournament with a perfect 11-0 record and were the #1 seed for the national event.  In the 1st round of the tournament they took on Carlee Conway and Maria Cespedes of Marion Military Institute and had little trouble with the Mississippi duo, hammering them 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals.  Next up was a stiffer test as they battled Florida State Champions Maeva Sanchez and Kiah Turner of Broward.  It was Broward who took the first set 7-5, but it seemed to have woken up the Lady Saints duo as they stormed back to win the second 6-2 before taking the tiebreaker by a 10-5 count to advance to the National Championship match.  In the title match they will go up against 2nd seeded Joanna Savva and Paige Murdock of Tyler, a duo that the Lady Saints are very familiar with from the 2014 Spring season.  The title match will take place at 5:00 Eastern Time Friday night with the winner claiming the 2014 ITA National Championship and moving on to the Super Bowl round of the Small College Nationals event.

 

In singles Lopez entered as the #2 seed after a fall season that saw her go 13-0 at #1 singles.  In the first round she took on Leticia Dos Santos of the College of the Desert and as she has more often than not this fall, blew her off the court by a count of 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the semifinals.  In the semis she will take on 3rd seeded Joanna Saava at 10:30 Friday morning, a preview of the two's doubles final later in the day.