Tufts' Tandem of Browne & McCooey Win ITA Small College Doubles National Championship

Courtesy Tufts Sports Information

MOBILE, Ala. - The Tufts University women's tennis doubles pair of sophomore Julia Browne (Old Brookville, N.Y.) and junior Meghan McCooey (Cumberland, R.I.) won the Division III doubles title at the 2008 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Small College Championships on Friday afternoon at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center. Their win marks the first national title for Tufts Tennis in the history of the program.

Browne and McCooey won twice on Friday to win the championship. In opening-round play on Thursday, they had earned an upset victory over the top seed in the Division III doubles draw, Katie Tabb and Lauren Claire from Washington & Lee. After falling 6-2 in the first set, the Jumbo duo evened things up with a 7-5 win in the second set. Playing a super tie-breaker to decide the match, Browne and McCooey won 10-5.

In the semi-finals on Friday at noon, Browne and McCooey had a strong 6-2, 7-5 victory against Molly Fiala and Andrea Schupach from Coe College. In the championship match against Marta Drane and Kristin Cobb from Denison, the Tufts duo cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win to take the title.

Ironically, Browne and McCooey had been the ITA New England runner-up at MIT on September 28. They were invited to the ITA Small College Nationals after the regional championship pair from Williams College declined to attend.

As the Division III winners, Browne and McCooey continued to play in the "Super Bowl" bracket of the Small College Nationals tournament, which pits the champions from Division II, Division III, NAIA and JUCO against each other to determine an overall small college champ. The Tufts duo was defeated by Delia Sescioreanu and Tereza Ververkova from the NAIA's Auburn University-Montgomery 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday.

Browne also played in the Division III singles draw at the ITA Small College Nationals and split a pair of matches. The top singles seed, Browne defeated Kalla Schaefer of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in three sets to open play. After winning the first 6-4, she fell 6-1 in the second set. She won the match with a 6-4 victory in the third set. Browne was then eliminated in the semi-finals by Jennifer Kung of the University of Chicago in three sets (7-5, 4-6, 6-4). Browne finished fourth after losing to Elizabeth Lewis from Chapman in the third-place match 6-2, 6-4.

The ITA National Small College Championships hosted by the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, which is administered by the ITA, dates back to 1986 and determines national champions for NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College mens and womens singles and doubles. Those champions then compete to become the overall national small college champs (for all divisions) in the ITA Super Bowl of Small College Tennis.

Each small college division featured eight singles players and eight doubles teams who earned spots into this national event by winning their respective Wilson/ITA Regional Championships held over the past three weeks throughout the country. All told, nearly 5,000 student-athletes competed in 61 regional tournaments to earn spots in the national event.