No. 10 Tartans Topped by No. 5 Washington U. in UAA Semifinals

(ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team, ranked 10th in the nation, fell Saturday, April 25 to fifth-ranked Washington University in St. Louis in the semifinals of the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship tournament. The Bears won 7-2 after all six singles matches were played to three sets.

Washington U. took a 3-0 lead sweeping doubles play by scores of 8-5, 8-5, and 8-2 at first, second and third doubles.

Junior Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India/IMG Pendleton School) was the first to finish the singles round with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory at first singles.

The Bears then took a 4-1 lead when sophomore Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) fell in a tough three-set match at sixth singles, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The match point was decided at third singles as the Bears won 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 against senior Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park).

The Tartans' final point came at fifth singles when sophomore Kiril Kirkov (Tampa, Fla./C. Leon King) forced a third set with a 7-6 (9-7) win in the second and then won 10-4 in the third set super tiebreaker.

Carnegie Mellon will now face 13th-ranked University of Chicago on Sunday, April 26 at 9:00 a.m. in the third-place match.