Mobile, AL... The College of New Jersey's Jackie Shtemberg (Franklin Lakes, NJ/Ramapo) and Felice Trinh (Linden, NJ/Linden) had a huge opening day at the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) National Small College Championships at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala., winning both of their matches and moving into the finals of the doubles competition.
In the first round, Shtemberg and Trinh scored the tournament's biggest upset as they knocked off top-seeded Kendra Higgins and Chrissy Hu from the University of Chicago, 7-5 and 6-4. That duo from Chicago also won 2009 NCAA Division III Doubles Champions last spring.
Shtemberg and Trinh followed up that up by outlasting Laura Chen and Ashley Herrick from Carnegie Mellon University, 6-3, 1-6, and 1-0 (10-9).
That win propelled the Lion duo into the finals set for Friday at 5 p.m. against second-seeded Julie Browne and Meghan McCooey of Tufts University, who are the defending champions of the tournament.