Doubles Tandem Advances to Semifinals of ITA Oracle Cup

(ROME, Ga.) - Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis doubles team of sophomore Melissa Strome (West Bloomfield, Mich. / West Bloomfield) and freshman Danna Taylor (Orlando, Fla. / Circle Christian School) competed in the quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Oracle Cup on Thursday. The championship event is being held at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.

The tandem, unseeded, upset the top seeded team of Kristina Yu and Victoria Yu of Wesleyan University. The pair dropped the first set 6-2 before winning set two, 6-3, to force a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Strome and Taylor jumped out to a 6-2 lead before winning 10-6 to advance to the semifinals.

Strome and Taylor will play fourth-seeded Jessica Liu and Madeleine Paolucci of Case Western Reserve University on Friday at 3:00 p.m.

In singles play, Taylor dropped a three-set match to second-seeded, Lauren O'Malley of John Carroll University. Taylor won the first set 6-2 before dropping sets two and three by the scorer of 6-1 and 6-3.

The freshman will continue play in the consolation semifinal on Friday at 11:00 a.m. against Michelle Uyeda of Linfield College.