No. 5 Men’s Tennis Advance to Third Round of NCAA Championship

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The fifth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team competed in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Division III Championships Friday, May 13, and advanced with a 5-0 victory over Goucher College. The win moves the Tartans' dual-match record to 17-6, as the Gophers end their season at 20-5. Carnegie Mellon is hosting the three-day NCAA Regional.

Senior duo of Yuvraj Kumar (New Delhi, India/Millfield School) and Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India/IMG Pendleton School) grabbed the Tartans first point of the match with an 8-0 win at No. 3 doubles over Elliot Diehl and Josiah Meekins. The Tartans then took a 2-0 lead when junior Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) and sophomore Jeffrey Chen (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) defeated Midori Fujitani and Jack Hodges at No. 2 doubles, 8-2.

After falling behind 3-2 at No. 1 doubles, the Cardinal and Gray freshmen tandem of Daniel Levine (Highland Park, Ill./Boca Prep International School) and Vayum Arora (Fremont, Calif./Mission San Jose) won six of the next seven games to complete the sweep for the Tartans in doubles play. Levine and Arora won 8-4 over Joey Caracappa and Seth Hoesman.  

Levine put the Tartans on top 4-0 with a straight set victory at No. 2 singles. The freshman won 6-1, 6-3 over Hodges. Zheng sealed the home team victory, as he defeated Diehl at No. 4 singles by the scores of 6-1, 6-0.

Carnegie Mellon will play the winner of University of Mary Washington and Johns Hopkins University Saturday, May 14 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 2:00 p.m.