Blue Devils Set to Open USTA/ITA Championship Play

DURHAM, N.C. -- Three members of the Duke women's tennis team, junior Samantha Harris, sophomore Ellyse Hamlin and freshman Meible Chi, are slated to compete in the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships held in Flushing, N.Y. Play begins Thursday, Nov. 3 with the first round of singles and the first and second rounds of doubles.

Harris and Hamlin garnered an automatic bid for the four-day event as a doubles pairing after the tandem won the ITA Carolina Region Championship in Chapel Hill, N.C., Oct. 24, defeating South Carolina's duo of Caroline Dailey and Mia Horvit, 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8). Harris and Hamlin, who own a perfect doubles record of 5-0 this season, will face Maryland's tandem of Kristina Hovsepyan and Alexandra Stanova Thursday at 1 p.m. Hovsepyan and Stanova earned a spot in this year's tournament after winning the ITA Atlantic Region Championship title earlier this fall. The winner of the first round contest is scheduled to face Pepperdine's 19th-ranked pair of Mayar Sherif Ahmed and Christine Maddox at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Chi is set to compete against Michigan's Alex Najarian at 9 a.m. Thursday morning in a round of 32 match. The Weston, Fla., native has put together a stellar freshman campaign for the Blue Devils, posting a 12-3 record through the first 15 singles matches of her college career to earn an at-large bid for this year's USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. Najarian takes the courts in New York after reaching the singles final of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships. The victor of Chi and Najarian's match will face the winner of the contest between Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani and Georgia's Eleni Christofi Friday.

Visit the tournament central page for updated information throughout the event.

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