Men’s Tennis Advance to Third Round of NCAA Championship

(MONROEVILLE, Pa.) – The fifth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team competed in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Division III Championships Saturday, May 10, and advanced with a 5-0 victory over Otterbein University. The win moves the Tartans' dual-match record to 18-6, as the Cardinals end their season at 19-5. Carnegie Mellon is hosting the three-day NCAA Regional.

The Tartans started play sweeping doubles with the tandem of sophomore Yuvraj Kumar (New Delhi, India/Millfield School) and freshman Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) earning the first point with an 8-1 victory over Tyler Gibbons and Kendall Coffman at No. 3.   Next to finish for the Tartans was the number one pair of juniors Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) and Christian Heaney-Secord (Westwood, Mass./Westwood).  The duo won 8-2 over Will Willson and David Seckel.

Carnegie Mellon completed the sweep when the No. 2 doubles team of junior Bryce Beisswanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint School) and freshman Kiril Kirkov (Tampa, Fla./C. Leon King) won 8-1 over Ryan Shutt and Zach McDivitt.

Kirkov put the Tartans on top 4-0 with a straight set victory at No. 4 singles.  The freshman won 6-2, 6-2 over Coffman.  Heaney-Secord sealed the home team victory, as he defeated Shutt at No. 2 singles by the scores of 6-4, 6-4.

Carnegie Mellon will play the winner of Case Western Reserve and Kalamazoo Sunday, May 11 for a chance to return to the national quarterfinals for the second time in school history.  The Tartans other trip to the quarterfinals came in 2010.  Sunday's match is set to start at 12:00 p.m.