LAUREL, Miss. – The No. 15 Lady Indians advance to Friday's NJCAA Region 23 Tournament semifinal round with a 5-3 win over No. 16 Co-Lin on Thursday.
The matches were originally scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. at Jones College. Weather delays forced tournament officials to move the match to the Laurel Sportsplex with a 12 p.m. start time to help keep the tournament on schedule.
ICC and Co-Lin split the first two double matches. Lucia Rubio and Cheyenne Hughes dropped an 8-1 decision to Camila Mordiz and Yariange Bello at No. 1. The Lady Indians tied the match at No. 2 when Jimena Paloma and Kaitlyn Greenwood defeated Ally Everett and Sophie Sisson, 8-3.
Caitlyn Ard and Rayssa Domingues gave the Lady Indians the advantage heading into singles action with an 8-4 win over Ann-Clark Van and Adyson Parks at No. 3.
Dominguez and Hughes put the Lady Indians up 4-1 with a pair of dominating performances to start singles play. Dominguez topped Everett at No. 3, 6-1, 6-0. Hughes followed the win with a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Sisson at No. 4.
Co-Lin rallied to make it a 4-3 match with wins at No. 1 and No. 6 singles with the No. 2 and No. 5 matches still on the court.
Rubio clinch the opening round victory for the Lady Indians with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 win over Mordiz at No. 2. At No. 5, Greenwood led Makaela Rummells 6-4, 4-6, 3-2 when the match was called.
The win avenged a 6-3 loss to the Lady Wolves during the regular season.
The Lady Indians will take on tournament host and top seeded No. 10 Jones Lady Bobcats at 10 a.m. Friday. The winner will advance to the 10 a.m. championship match while the loser will play in the third place match at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Click here to visit the 2024 NJCAA Region 23 Women's Tennis Championships Tournament Central site.