Alice Pirsu and Shelah Chao teamed up to make an unlikely trip to the the ITA/Omni Hotels Eastern Region Championships at Harvard.
And yesterday, the Penn duo came home with the Quakers' first-ever title in ITA regional competition.
By winning the tournament, the Quakers secured a bid to the National Indoor Championships.
Pirsu, the Quakers' captain, reigning Ivy League Player of the Year and returning All-American is no stranger to playing on the national stage.
In the spring of 2001, Pirsu advanced to the Round of 16 at the National Championships, marking the only time that a Penn player has advanced past the first round of the nation's toughest tournament.
She is also the only Penn player to notch a top-20 national ranking during the season.
Last month, Pirsu received a bid to play in the main draw of the prestigious Riviera/ITA All-American Tennis Championships, held in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Pirsu defeated Sadhaf Perez of Ohio State, but then fell to Kelly McCain of Duke in the second round.
Chao, on the other hand, has considerably less experience on the national scene since arriving at Penn two years ago. The sophomore from Medford, N.J., will be introduced to the nation's best when she and Pirsu travel to Dallas, Texas to compete in the National Indoor Championships next week.
Chao faced off against the nation's best in high school when she traveled to the Easterbowl, a invitational tournament for the nation's top high school junior players, based on rankings.
Chao -- who was also the valedictorian of her high school class -- will take that experience with her as she competes in the largest tournament of her young career.
Pirsu and Chao were seeded No. 4 in the Eastern Region -- a reflection of their perfect 7-0 record together in Ivy League play last spring.
They breezed through the competition, punctuating their impressive run with an 8-6 triumph over Jessica Johnson and Alice Sukner of Marshall University in the final round of play.
This will be the final event in the fall season for members of the Red and Blue, as the team gears up to defend its Ivy League crown for the second straight year in spring play.
Penn will begin its team competition on January 24, when they travel to Raleigh-Durham to take on Duke.
The Quakers begin their quest to league championship three-peat in early April, with a home match against Ivy League rival Princeton.
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