(FRESNO, Calif.) Top-seeded Alexander Leischner began his title defense of his ITA West Regional singles championship on Thursday in Fresno, advancing to the Round of 16.
 
He will be joined at that stage of the tournament by teammate Matt Melosch, while four PLNU women will represent Point Loma in the Round of 16 of the women's bracket.
 
Leischner received a first-round bye before defeating Emil Hultman of Colorado Mesa in the Round of 32 (6-0, 6-4).
 
Melosch won a pair of super tiebreaks to book his spot in the Round of 16. In the first round, he defeated eight-seeded Alexander Edmonston of Concordia (6-4, 4-6 (10-8)) before bouncing back from a first set loss to prevail over Patricio Larrea of Biola (6-7, 6-4 (10-7)).
 
On the women's side, seventh-seeded Thelma Sepulveda cruised past Viktoria Leth of ART U (6-1, 6-0) before winning a super tiebreak to defeat Shannele Lopez of Azusa Pacific (5-7, 6-4 (10-8)).
 
She will be joined in the Round of 16 by teammates Arianna Audelo, Amanda Letzring and Quin Brady.
 
Audelo won 7-6, 4-6 (10-7) over Alex Mann of Biola before taking down Rochelle Suarez of Cal State LA (6-0, 6-2).
 
Letzring defeated Julianna Campos of Colorado Mesa (6-1, 6-1) and then earned a 6-3, 5-7 (10-5) victory over Sophie Rachor of CUI.
 
Brady, a freshman, won a pair of super tiebreaks against Lilly Stienemeier of Metro State Denver (5-7, 6-2 (10-3)) and Vini Margaret Bautista of APU (7-5, 3-6 (10-8)).
 
In men's doubles, fourth-seeded Leischner and partner Nabeel Khan advanced to Friday's quarterfinals with an 8-1 win over Biola's Larrea/Callen Hein and an 8-3 triumph against CUI's Edmonston/Maximilian Renz.
 
In the women's bracket, Letzring and Brady booked a spot in the quarterfinals after a pair of wins, 8-0 over Paulina Alvarez/Georgina Parr of ART U and 8-3 against Annabelle Mulick/Zuzanna Dziewiecka of Cal State Stanislaus.
 
The tournament resumes on Friday at 8 a.m.