Anna Bright/Eric Oncins became the first pairing to advance to Semifinal Saturday in central Florida with an 11-8, 11-5 victory over No. 5 seeds Jessie Irvine/Gabe Tardio.

It was battle between teams with varying levels of time spent playing together; this is the first tournament for Bright/Oncins, while Irvine/Tardio have played nearly two full PPA Tour seasons as a partnership.

Experience didn’t win out on Thursday, though, as Bright/Oncins got the job done in two games.

Thursday nearly got off to a rocky start for the No. 4 seeds, as they faced a game point in Game 1 of their first match against No. 61 seeds Anne-Sophie Courteau/Anouar Braham, but they haven’t faced another game point since.

“There were definitely some nervous plays in the first match, but then throughout the day I’ve been able to loosen up a little bit,” Oncins told Pickleballtv’s Ireland Horvat. “I think this was our best match of the day. We played the cleanest, we stuck to the gameplan, and we executed.”

Oncins/Bright will face top seeds Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns on Saturday with a spot in the gold medal match on the line.