BLACKSBURG, Virginia - The UNCW women's team went a combined 13-3 in opening day matches of the 19^th Annual Hokie Fall Women's Tennis Invitational hosted by Virginia Tech Friday at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center.

The Seahawks went 7-1 in singles and 6-2 in doubles on the day, drawing strong praise from first-year coach Evan Clark.

"I'm really proud with the way the girls competed today," said Clark, who took over the program in late summer. "Christina (Riley) had a fantastic singles win over Sydney Smith of William & Mary. The exciting part is that we have yet to play our best tennis and we'll look to do that tomorrow on the second day."

In Flight A singles, UNCW junior Angie Sekely routed Radford's Gemma Valls, 6-1, 6-1, while junior Olga Blank fell to Armstrong Atlantic's Aleksandra Filipovski, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0.

Both Seahawk players advanced in the Flight B singles bracket. Sophomore Alyssa Ritchie cruised past UMBC's Isabel Aldunate, 6-1, 6-4, and senior Riley outlasted Smith, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

In Flight C singles, junior Kelly Cameron bageled Virginia Tech's Megan Conley, 6-0, 6-0, and freshman Christine Kharkevich downed Liberty's Valerie Thong, 6-2, 6-4.

Seahawk sophomores Hamilton Lovett and Miller Hales both won their opening matches in Flight D. Lovett blanked Virginia Tech's Marshal Temory, 6-0, 6-0, and Hales turned back Wofford's Lucy Schmerhorn, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.

Both Seahawks doubles teams lost in their first matches of Flight A. Cameron and Hales were ousted by William & Mary's Anik Cepeda and Hope Johnson, 8-3, and Blank and Sekely dropped a close 8-6 verdict to East Tennessee State's Antonia Kolovou and Larn McShane.

In Flight B doubles action, Kharkevich and Ritchie advanced to the semifinals with a pair of wins. The pair beat Aldunate and Shannon Cleary of UMBC, 8-3, in the first-round and topped Radford's Taylor Fay and Taylor Newman, 8-3, in the quarterfinals. In addition, Riley and Lovett combined for an 8-3 decision ovber Temory and Radford's Allison Michael.