Chen and Chin Advance to USTA/ITA National Final

(MOBILE, Ala.) – Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis duo of seniors Laura Chen (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber) and Courtney Chin (Cupertino, Calif./Monta Vista) competed at the 2011 USTA/ITA Division III National Small College Championships in Mobile, Ala, Thursday, October 13. The doubles team won a pair of matches to advance to the National Final match Friday evening.

In their first match of the afternoon Chen and Chin, the top seed, defeated Kalla Schaefer and Alexandra Bayliss of Wisconsin-Whitewater in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. The seniors then had to face University Athletic Association (UAA) tandem of Kendra Higgins and Jennifer Kung of the University of Chicago in the semifinals.  Chen and Chin won again in straight sets defeating the Maroon pair, 6-3-6-4.

This marks the second time in school history that Carnegie Mellon will have a doubles team playing for the USTA/ITA Division III National Small College Championship.  The duo of Amy Staloch and Mona Iyer played in the finals in 2004.

Chen and Chin will play another UAA opponent in the finals. They will face Gabrielle Clark and Zahra Dawson of Emory University at 5:00 p.m. CT Friday, October 14 in hunt of becoming the first doubles team to win the USTA/ITA Division III National Small College Championship in school history.