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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Freshman Martha Blakely won two qualifying matches Friday to advance to Saturday’s main draw at the Wilson/ITA East Region Championships. Tech’s doubles team of Inga Beermann/Blakely also won two matches in qualifying and moved into the main draw.

The event features players from 60 schools in the region competing to qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships next month in Charlottesville, Va. The two singles finalists and the doubles champion from the regional will automatically qualify for the national championship. The East Regional, scheduled to continue through Oct. 28, is being played at the Levy Tennis Pavilion on the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Martha Blakely (Reading, Pa.) blanked Maryann Miltchusky (Rutgers), 6-0, 6-0, in her first qualifying singles match then disposed of Lisa Miller (Maryland), 7-5, 6-2, to make the main draw. Blakely will face Nadia Demidenkco (George Washington) on Saturday. Abbey Walker (Sr., Lancaster, S.C.) was not as fortunate dropping a tight first round match, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4, against Sinziana Chis (Cornell).

Inga Beermann (Sr., Bad Salzuflen, Germany), seeded No. 11 and Yasmin Hamza (So., Cairo, Egypt), ranked No. 110 nationally and seeded No. 17, received byes and will not see their first action until Sunday. On Saturday, Jessica Brouwer (Sr., Maarssen, Netherlands) will play Paila Rodolfi (Stonybrook) and Holly Johnson (So., Tallahassee, Fla.) faces Sarah Mayer (Siena).

In qualifying doubles, Beerman/Blakely defeated Emily Ellis/Kathrin Sorokko (Brown), 8-5, then knocked out Matache/Monell (Columbia), 8-1, to advance into the main draw. Hamza/Walker lost their opening match, 8-3, versus Vicky Brook/Stevi Petrelli (Yale). Brouwer/Johnson are already in the main draw and will see their first doubles action on Saturday versus a team from New Jersey Tech.

The tournament schedule for Saturday includes starting the day with two rounds of doubles followed by one round of singles. The schedule is reversed for Sunday with a single round of doubles followed by two rounds of singles.

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