Tartans Advance to UAA Semifinals for 11th Straight Season

(ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team won it's 11th straight University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship quarterfinal match when it defeated fourth-seeded Case Western Reserve University, 6-3, on Thursday, April 21. The Tartans, seeded fifth for the tournament and eighth in the nation, are now 15-5 on the season while the sixth-ranked Spartans move to 18-7.

The Tartans trailed by one after doubles play, earning their point from the number three pair of seniors Yuvraj Kumar (New Delhi, India/Millfield School) and Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India/IMG Pendleton School) when they won 8-4 against John Benedetto and David Zakhodin.

Once singles got underway, junior Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-2 victory at fourth singles against Louis Stuerke. Freshman Daniel Levine (Highland Park, Ill./Boca Prep International School) gave the Tartans a 3-2 advantage with a 6-4, 6-2 win at second singles against James Fojtasek before CJ Krimbill topped Alla, 6-3, 6-3, at first singles to tie the match once again.

Kumar won his sixth singles match, 6-4, 6-2, to put the Tartans within a match of the team victory. Freshman Vayum Arora (Fremont, Calif./Mission San Jose) controlled the third set of his fifth singles match to win the decisive point, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, to advance the Tartans to the semifinals. Freshman Chaz Downing (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona Del Mar) finished the scoring with a 6-4, 6-4 win at third singles.

The Tartans will next face first seed and No. 1 Emory University on Friday, April 22 at noon.