Tartans Advance to Semifinals at ITA Southeast Regional

(FREDERICKSBURG, Va.) – Play continued at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Southeast Regional on Sunday, October 1 for the Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team. Two individuals advanced to the semifinal round in singles while two doubles pairs also made the semifinal round.

Junior Daniel Levine (Highland Park, Ill. / Boca Prep International School) will play in the semifinals for the second time in his career as he defeated Justin Kang of Johns Hopkins University, 7-5, 6-3, in the round of 16 and pushed past Michael Fleming of the University of Mary Washington, 6-3, 6-4, in the quarterfinals. Levine previously played in the semifinals as a freshman.

Freshman Ray Boppana (Boxborough, Mass. / Acton Boxborough Regional) will join Levine in the semifinals with the chance to meet each other in the finals. Boppana reached the semifinal round with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Courtney Murphy of Wilkes University and a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Thibault Vernier of Swarthmore College.

Junior Chaz Downing (Newport Beach, Calif. / Corona Del Mar) was nearly set to face Boppana in the semifinals before he fell in a 3.5-hour, three-set match against Mark Fallati of Swarthmore, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-5. Downing won his first match of the day against Patrick Hughes of Mary Washington, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3.

In doubles play, the unseeded pair of senior Tommy Cheng (Cupertino, Calif. / Cupertino) and freshman Kailas Shekar (Saratoga, Calif. / Saratoga) continued its run through the bracket with an 8-2 win in the round of 16 against Luke Sablik and Zachary Shane of Lynchburg College before they topped Thomas Harmon and March Zheng of Washington and Lee University, 9-7, in the quarterfinals.

Levine and Downing will also play in the doubles semifinals and will face Cheng and Shekar after wins against Jiung Jung and Black Oetting of Swarthmore and Noah Tapp and Mitchell Thomas of Washington and Lee. The veteran pair's first win was by an 8-3 score while its quarterfinal win was 8-1.

Doubles play will begin at 8 a.m. while singles is set to start at 9:30 a.m. Monday, October 2 on the campus of Mary Washington.