No. 9 Tartans Win Emotional Match 6-3 Against Case Western Reserve

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The ninth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team picked up another win against a top-ranked team as it defeated 12th-ranked Case Western Reserve University 6-3 on Saturday, April 4. The Tartans improve to 13-5 on the year while the Spartans fall to 13-9.

The senior pair of Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) and Christian Heaney-Secord (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) won the first point of the match at first doubles with an 8-6 score, holding serve on the win point. The Spartans then pulled out two tight matches at second doubles and third doubles by identical 8-6 scores to take the 2-1 advantage heading into singles play.

Junior Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India/IMG Pendleton School) led play in singles with a 6-2, 6-3 win at first singles to tie the match at 2-2. Sophomore Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) then won 6-1, 6-4 at fourth singles to take a 3-2 advantage.

Will Drougas from Case Western Reserve then helped the Spartans tie the match again with a 6-1, 6-4 win at second singles against Heaney-Secord.

Duncan, who came from behind to win the first set 7-6 at third singles, won his second set 6-2 to put the Tartans one-point away from winning the match.

At fifth singles, sophomore Kunal Wadwani (Saratoga, Calif./Ballarmine College Prep) sealed the win for the Tartans with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 victory.

Also winning for the Tartans was sophomore Kiril Kirkov (Tampa, Fla./C. Leon King) who came from down a set to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

The Tartans will next face 11th-ranked Kenyon College on Sunday, April 5 in Gambier, Ohio.