Although Penn State women's tennis coach Buffy Baker likes to constantly tinker with her doubles lineup, she has found one combination that is likely to lead the team for the remainder of the fall season and into the spring.

The duo of senior Judy Wang and sophomore Megan Marton once again were impressive as they advanced to the quarterfinals of the Omni Hotels Eastern Region Women's Tennis Championships at Harvard University.

The doubles tournament lasted from Friday to Tuesday, and featured 64 of the best doubles tandems that the East region had to offer.

Marton and Wang were a No. 9-16 seed, which meant that they had the same seeding as seven other teams.

The doubles tandem breezed through the first two rounds of the tournament, eliminating teams from Hartford and Bucknell, before facing the No. 5 seed from Virginia.

Unfazed, Marton and Wang beat UVA in a fairly convincing fashion, 8-4, to advance to the final eight before falling to a team from Harvard, 8-2, in the quarters.

"Megan was serving really well, which helped me with poaching," Wang said.

Poaching means the player at the net moves to the opposite side of the court in an attempt to hit a volley winner off of the return.

After a spring season in which Baker felt that her doubles teams could have played better, she has really been stressing the importance of communication.

She says communication is the key to being successful in doubles.

Wang agreed that communication was paramount, saying that she and Marton talk to each other between every points.

"In between points, we usually go through strategy and try to pump ourselves up," Wang said.

Wang and Marton first started playing together consistently last spring and were an immediate success.

They compiled a 10-4 record during the spring season while competing at both the No. 2 and No. 3 positions.

Although Baker has been flip flopping her doubles lineup throughout the fall, Marton and Wang form one combination that has played together in each of the team's tournaments.

They have competed fiercely from the outset, earning a second-place finish in the team's first tournament, the OSU/Prince Cup in Columbus.

Wang and Marton also reached the quarters of the Cissie Leary Invitational earlier this year.

Marton and sophomore Maaria Husain also both competed in singles of the regional tournament and won their first-round matches, before bowing out in the second round.

Husain said that this tournament was different from the others she has competed in this year.

"It's a totally different atmosphere," Husain said. "Everyone's fighting for ranking. It just makes you want it more."

Despite their early exits, the two sophomores have competed in regionals for two years straight, and will look to build on their performances in the next couple years.

"What it does is just continue to expose them to high levels of play, where they expect more from themselves," Baker said.