Sept. 30, 2005

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Virginia women's tennis team opened play Friday at the Deacon Classic hosted by Wake Forest. Eight singles players and three doubles teams advanced during the first day of play at the tournament.

In singles Flight A, one of the three Cavaliers in the draw advanced to the quarterfinals. Second-year Rachel DelPriore (Williamsville, N.Y.) defeated Victoria Vaynberg of Syracuse in the first round. Three Cavaliers advanced to the quarterfinals of singles Flight B. Second-year Lindsey Pereira (Arlington, Texas) advanced with a first round victory over Kay Ngiam of Tennessee Tech. Third-year Caroline Hammond (Williamsburg, Va.) scored an opening round win over Jessica Hubbard of Richmond while fourth-year Lori Stern (Ojai, Calif.) downed Erica Zabkar of UNC-Greensboro. In Flight C, fourth Cavaliers scored first round wins to reach the quarterfinals. Shannon Stough (Hot Springs, Ark.) topped Rice's Amy Cao, while Lara Alexander (London, England) defeated Evgenia Yartseva of Tennessee Tech. First-years Cathy Nimitz (Glen Allen, Va.) topped Pearly Leung of Syracuse and Hampton Williams (Raleigh, N.C.) defeated Sarah Templeton of UNC-Greensboro and will meet each other in the quarterfinals.

In doubles Flight A, the team of DelPriore and Douglas Wink (Greensboro, N.C.) reached the semifinals. After a first round bye, the duo topped Jenna Loeb and Blakely Offult of Wake Forest 8-2 in the quarterfinals. In doubles Flight B, two Cavalier teams reached the semifinals. Periera and Hammond had a first round bye before defeating Carter and Ngiam of Tennessee Tech 8-2 in the quarterfinals. Alexander and Williams reached the semifinals with wins over Wade and Miles of UNC-Greensboro and Egic and Kavanagh-Patel of Rice.

"It was a pretty solid start to the tournament for our team, especially from a standpoint of depth," said Virginia head coach Mark Guilbeau. "The coaching staff is impressed with all the steps the players are taking to implement and execute their best skills as well as the new strategies and gameplans they have been working on. We are looking forward to tomorrow."

The tournament will continue Saturday and conclude on Sunday.