Tartans Open Play at Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational

(NEWPORT, R.I.) - Four members of the Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team opened play at the Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational on Friday, September 14 in Newport, Rhode Island, with both doubles teams winning their first matches.

Sophomore Melissa Strome (West Bloomfield, Mich. / West Bloomfield) and junior Vinaya Rao (Vernon Hills, Ill. / Adlai E. Stevenson) defeated University of Chicago's freshman Lauren Park and freshman Eugenia Lee, 8-5 to advance to face freshman Georgia Wright and freshman Taylor Garcia from Washington and Lee University on Saturday.

Also winning in doubles play was senior Jamie Vizelman (Highland Heights, Ohio / Mayfield) and junior Courtney Ollis (Suffern, N.Y. / Suffern) by a 9-8 (7-2) score against Chicago's sophomore Catherine Xu and junior Estefania Navarro. Vizelman and Ollis will face senior Daniela Lopez and freshman Emma Cartledge of Emory University on Saturday.

In singles play, Strome won her Friday match in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8) against freshman Jessica Fatemi of Emory University.

All four athletes will continue play on Saturday with Strome starting things off against Emory's Olcay at 10:00 a.m.