Chen Earns Eighth All-America Honor at NCAA Championships; Doubles Wins Marathon Match

(CARY, N.C.) – Carnegie Mellon University senior Laura Chen (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber) will finish her career as an eight-time All-American after a first-round singles victory at the 2012 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships on Thursday, May 24 at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C. Chen also competed in doubles competition alongside fellow senior Courtney Chin (Cupertino, Calif./Monta Vista), as the pair advanced to the quarterfinals with a three-set win.

Chen started her Thursday with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Abby Olbrich of Linfield College. The victory gave Chen her eighth All-America honor and fourth in singles competition. The afternoon pitted Chen against Amherst College's Laura Danzig in the round of 16. Danzig played a near flawless match, topping Chen 6-1, 6-4, but not before Chen battled back from being down 4-1 in the second set to 5-4.

Chen finished her career with a 6-4 record in singles play at the NCAA Championships. She made the quarterfinals in both her freshman and sophomore seasons.

Chen and Chin ended the evening with a doubles win against Kendra Higgins and Carmen Vaca Guzman of University of Chicago who they faced during the University Athletic Association Championship. The pair from Chicago won the first set 6-4 before Chen and Chin took the second 6-3. The Tartans then held serve and broke the Maroon pair once to win 6-4 and move on to Friday's quarterfinal round.

Chen and Chin will face Danzig and Gabby Devlin of Amherst sometime after 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The match will give the Tartan pair a chance to avenge their loss to Danzig and Devlin on Monday during the team quarterfinals.