Iannacone and Branson Advance at WSC Tourney

The Pirates' No. 1 doubles team of Nicole Iannacone and Kira Branson advanced to the quarterfinal round Thursday to highlight the second day of action at the Western State Conference SIngles and Doubles Championships at the VC Tennis Center. Iannacone, Branson and Lola Tennison also advanced to the Round of 16 in singles play, qualifying for the 3C2A State Championships at The Ojai Tournament later this month.

Already qualified for state with a win on Tuesday, Iannacone and Branson, the No. 6 seed, defeated the 12th-seeded pair from Santa Barbara 84 to move forward to Friday's quarterfinals. Meanwhile, No. 10 Tennison and Chandra Padua, who also had qualified for state on Tuesday, dropped an 8-1 decision to the No. 8 team from SBCC.

In singles play, No. 5 Iannacone won her Round of 32 match against an opponent from Los Angeles Mission, one and love, to qualify for The Ojai before dropping her next match to the No. 12 seed from Santa Barbara, 6-2, 6-2.

Seventh-seed Tennison punched her ticket to state with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of a foe from Canyons before falling to the No. 10-seed from Santa Barbara, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0.

No. 15 Branson also qualified for the state championships with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over an opponent from Santa Barbara before narrowly falling in a super-tiebreaker against the No. 4 seed from LA Mission, 5-7, 6-0, (10-7).

Fernanda Gonzales, Samantha Garcia and Padua all had their singles tournament come to an end in the Round of 32 Thursday with straight set losses a round shy of making The Ojai.

Iannacone and Branson will continue play in the doubles draw on Friday April 4 at 3:00 pm in the quarterfinal round.