Tartans Come Back to Defeat National Power Amherst 5-4

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team battled through rain and a move indoors to defeat national power Amherst College 5-4 on Sunday, October 7. Freshman Kosuke Hasegawa (Sunnyvale, Calif./Fremont) won the deciding fifth point after being down 4-1 in his second set.

The Lord Jeffs, and national championship winner of 2011, were ahead 3-0 after tightly contested doubles matches including the third match in the No. 2 slot where freshemen Ben Fife and Andrew Yaraghi defeated Hasegawa and sophomore Thomas Cooper (Albuquerque, N.M./Albuquerque Academy) 9-7.

The Tartans earned their first point of the match when freshman Yuvraj Kumar (New Delhi, India/Millfield School) won 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4 singles over freshman Aaron Revzin as momentum continued to carry over in the home teams favor.

Sophomore Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) then won at No. 6 singles, 6-1, 6-4 over sophomore Andrew Scheiner with freshman Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India/IMG Pendleton School) defeating three-time All-America and last year's No. 5 ranked player in Division IIII, Mark Kahan 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3 singles to tie the score at 3-3.

Sophomore Christian Heaney-Secord (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) gave the Tartans a one-point lead with a two-set victory at No. 1 singles against Yaraghi 6-2, 6-3.

No. 2 and No. 5 singles were underway and near completion when the rain forced the match to be moved indoors. Senior Duke Miller (Poway, Calif./Poway) was in a three-set match with Fife ahead 2-1 in the third set. Fife went on to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, setting the stage for Hasegawa and sophomore Jon Cypers of Amherst.

Hasegawa won the first set 7-5 and was ahead 5-4 in the second set before play was suspended. In the second set, the freshman was down 4-1 with it looking like a third set was going to be needed to determine the outcome. Hasegawa stormed back to lead 5-4 and went on to win 7-5 giving the match to the Tartans.

Carnegie Mellon will ride this win into the spring season that begins indoors in February when the team hosts Division II West Virginia Wesleyan College at a time to be determined on Saturday, February 2.