wiIn the first day of the Midwest Blast in Champaign, Ill., the Minnesota women’s tennis team only advanced one in singles competition and failed to tally a win in doubles.

The lone singles win came from Angela Buergis who defeated Illinois State’s Alana Hoffman 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of play. She then went on to defeat fellow Gopher Brandi Watts in the second round 6-0, 6-2. That places Buergis in the quarterfinals where she will face Jamie Wong of Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Michaela Havelkova and Valerie Vladea each received first round byes, but went on to lose their second round matches. Havelkova lost to Liina Suurvarik of Illinois State 5-7, 1-6 and Vladea lost to Eva Choe of Illinois 6-1, 6-7, 1-6. Kandis Batiste advanced to the second round where she was defeated 2-6, 0-6 by Wong. In other singles action, freshman Nischela Reddy lost in the first round 6-3, 2-6, 3-6 to Tiffany Eklov of Illinois.

In doubles action, Batiste and Watts received a first round bye putting them up against the duo of Wong/Morris of Georgia Tech in the second round where they were defeated 0-8. Buergis and Reddy lost to Shosho/Schenk of Georgia Tech in the first round 5-8. The duo of Vladea and Havelkova also received a first round bye and will face Cehajic/Knue of Illinois in the second round on Saturday.

The competition continues on Saturday.