Emory University sophomore Gabrielle Clark and senior Zahra Dawson won a pair of matches on Thursday to advance to the finals of the USTA/ITA National Small College Doubles Championships.  In addition, Clark won her opening match in the singles draw, advancing to Friday's semifinals.

In doubles action, Emory's third-seeded pairing of Clark and Dawson advanced to the semifinals with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Nancy Worley and Kara Shoemaker of Williams College in the quarterfinal round on Thursday.  In their second match of the day, the Eagles' pair defeated unseeded Lee Ford and Nataly Mendoza of Skidmore College, 6-0, 6-0, to advance to the championship match.

The Eagles will face the winner of the semifinal match between top-seeded Laura Chen and Courtney Chin of Carnegie Mellon University and fourth-seeded Kendra Higgins and Jennifer Kung of the University of Chicago, on Friday at 6:00 PM ET in the finals of the NCAA Division III doubles draw.  The winning team will advance to the 'Super Bowl' semifinals on Saturday at 4:00 PM ET, along with the winners of the NCAA Division II, JUCO and NAIA brackets.

Clark was dominant in her opening singles match of the tournament as well, as the draw's second-seeded player defeated senior Kalla Schaefer of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.  Emory's sophomore will return to action on Friday at 11:30 AM ET against third-seeded Kendra Higgins of the University of Chicago in the semifinals.  Higgins claimed a 6-1, 6-4 win over Mackenzie Knoop of Trinity University in her quarterfinals match on Thursday.

On the other side of the bracket, Kristin Lim of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Lok Sze Leung of Middlebury College will face in the semifinals after quarterfinal victories.  The winners of the two semifinal matches on Friday will meet at 9:30 AM ET on Saturday in the championship match, for the right to advance to the singles 'Super Bowl' draw, along with the winners of the Division II, JUCO and NAIA draws.  The semifinal losers will play in the third-place match, also at 9:30 AM ET on Saturday.

Fans can follow Friday's action from the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Alabama with Emory's twitter updates, at http://twitter.com/EmoryWTennis.