Downing and Levine Advance in Doubles at NCAA Championships

(CLAREMONT, Calif.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis doubles pair of juniors Chaz Downing (Newport Beach, Calif. / Corona Del Mar) and Daniel Levine (Highland Park, Ill. / Boca Prep International Schoo) advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2018 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championships Thursday. The individual singles and doubles tournament is being played at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, California.

Levine started the day in the singles bracket, winning his round of 32 match in three sets. He topped Chad LeDuff of UC Santa Cruz, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. It was the third straight year Levine won his first match at the national championships. In the round of 16, the junior faced Jack Katzman of host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and was defeated, 6-4, 6-1.

Levine's third match of the day came in doubles with Downing. The pair earned a 7-6(7-5) first-set win against Mohanad Alhouni and Patrick Whaling of Gustavus Adolphus before falling 6-1 in the second set. The Tartan pair jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third set before winning 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. The win advenged an earlier 8-6 loss to the Gustavus Adolphus pair at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship and gives both Downing and Levine All-America recognition by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Levine and Downing will continue competition Friday at 3:30 p.m. PT against Emory University's Scott Rubinstein and James Spaulding. Levine has had success against Rubinstein and Spaulding in the past, winning twice last year with two different partners and twice during his freshman campaign. This will be the first match against an Emory opponent this season for the Tartans.