Tartans Use Strong Singles Play to Defeat Mary Washington

(FREDERICKSBURG, Va.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team, ranked 11th in the nation, defeated the 17th-ranked University of Mary Washington Eagles on Sunday, March 23 by a 6-3 score. The Tartans are now 12-5 on the year while the Eagles fell to 12-3.

Doubles was decided by a lenghthy tiebreaker at No. 3 doubles that was won by Mary Washington 9-8(17-15). That was the second point for the Eagles as the No. 2 pair of junior Bryce Beisswanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint School) and sophomore Yuvraj Kumar (New Delhi, India/Millfield School) won 8-6 for the Tartans.

Freshman Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) was the first to finish singles and he tied the match for the Tartans with a 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 5 singles. Freshman Kunal Wadwani (Saratoga, Calif./Ballarmine College Prep) then gave the Tartans a 3-2 lead with a 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 6 singles.

The Tartans added to their advantage when junior Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) won a three-set match at No. 3 singles, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Fellow junior Christian Heaney-Secord (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) recorded the team's match point with a three-set win of his own at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

The last point for the Tartans came via freshman Kiril Kirkov (Tampa, Fla./C. Leon King) at No. 4 singles when he won 7-6(7-4), 6-3.

The Tartans will host their first match of the spring on Saturday, March 29 against No. 21 Washington & Lee University at 10:00 a.m. for their next contest.