Oct. 19, 2006

FORT WORTH - Texas State's Andrea Giraldo moved to the women's qualifying singles' round of 16 with a pair of wins on the first day of the ITA Regionals at TCU on Thursday.

Giraldo defeated Texas Tech's Sophie Fankam 6-1, 7-5 before posting a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Rice's Jennifer Pan. Giraldo will be playing for a spot in the regional's main draw on Friday morning.

Teammate Ashley Ellis has already been seeded in the main draw and will play at 12:30 on Friday.

Also in qualifying singles play, Sumarie Muller defeated Texas-Arlington's Marissa Brown 4-6, 6-0, 10-3 before losing to Louisiana-Lafayette's Channel Meijer 6-3, 6-2. Lainy Chafitz suffered a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Rice's Emily Braid in qualifying play but came back and was beating Texas-Pan American's Stephanie Willerding 6-1, 3-0 before her opponent retired in consolation play. She will advance in the consolation bracket today.

In the first round of the doubles main draw, Chafitz and Giraldo defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Lana Burton and Nina Ciric 8-3.

Eillis and Muller suffered an 8-5 loss to Texas Tech's Brenna Jackswon and Samantha Vander Drift 8-5 in main draw action.

The ITA Regional continues through Sunday.