THE BASICS:
 
- Location: Orlando, Fla. (USTA National Campus)
 
- The Lead: Junior Sarah Pertsemlidis (Coppell, Texas), who is the No. 5 seed, picked up a pair of victories on day one of the NCAA Division III Singles Championship as she advances to the quarterfinals on Saturday morning. In the quarters, Pertsemlidis will face Nina Ye from Pomona-Pitzer for a berth in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
- In the first round of the singles draw, Pertsemlidis easily defeated Erin Storrer of Otterbein University by a 6-1, 6-1 margin. From there, she advanced to take on Cassidy Binder from Pacific (OR) in the second round, which she defeated by a score of 6-1, 6-3. Pertsemlidis is just the third MIT singles player to advance to the quarterfinals as she joins Leslie Hansen (2009-10 season) and Elysa Kohrs (twice in 2013-14 and 2017-18).
 
- Sophomore Kimberly Liao (Commack, N.Y.) fell to Samantha Wong of UT-Dallas by a 6-2, 6-4 final in the first round of the singles tournament.
 
- In the first round of the doubles championship, the MIT duo of Liao and junior Yuka Perera (Santa Barbara, Calif.) had a rematch with the No. 1 seed from CMS with Nikolina Batoshvili and Alisha Chulani. The Engineers jumped out to a 5-3 lead in the first set before the Athenas rallied to take the hard-fought first set in a tiebreak. CMS punched their ticket to the second round with a 6-2 victory in the second set and will take on Erica Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa of Williams in the second round on Saturday..
 
UP NEXT:
 
- On Saturday, May 28th, the singles quarterfinals get underway at 10 a.m. at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
 
STAY CONNECTED:
 
- For the latest on MIT Athletics, follow the Engineers via social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.