If you're a baseball player, you've dreamed of playing in Yankee Stadium. If you're a football player, you've dreamed of playing at Lambeau Field. If you're a tennis player, you've dreamed of playing at Flushing Meadows, the annual site of the U.S. Open.

The Penn State women's tennis team realized that dream this weekend when it competed in the USTA National Tennis Center Women's College Tennis Invitational.

"It was a neat feeling to be on the courts and knowing what level of competition is usually there," Penn State women's tennis coach Buffy Baker said.

Junior Jessica McKeown, one of nine Lions who compete in the weekend tournament, said that playing at Flushing Meadows was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that she will remember.

"You get a rush because you know the players that have played there," she said.

The rush that McKeown felt helped her and teammate Maaria Husain advance two rounds in doubles Flight A before falling to Britney Brown and Kristine Skoda of Kansas.

"I feel like we meshed well," McKeown said. "It was little things that cost us points."

Players were divided into four singles flights (A, B, C, D) and two doubles flights (A, B). Megan Marton and Husain competed in singles Flight A; Leigh Ann Merryman and Sasha Abraham competed in Flight B; Sarah Spence and McKeown competed in Flight C; and Kaitlyn BeVard, Kristine Harclerode and Jenny Nolan competed in Flight D.

Merryman, who turned in the best individual performance of the tournament, savored the rare opportunity to play on the same courts as Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Serena Williams.

"It's the place where the people you grew up watching played and made history," she said.

Merryman won her first two matches of the tournament to advance to the Flight B semifinals.

After ousting Washington's Saskia Nauenberg in the quarterfinals, Merryman fell in the next round to Pennsylvania's Caroline Stanislawski in a third-set tiebreaker.

"She was able to execute things we've been working on in practice," Baker said of Merryman's quarterfinal match. "She has picked up things pretty quickly."

Baker said that Merryman's semifinal loss was a winnable match but Stanislawski had the mental edge.

Merryman said that while her footwork and return game were keys to her success in her quarterfinal match.