#15 Tartans Battle for 5-4 Win Against #14 Case Western Reserve

(Orlando, Fla.) – The 15th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team faced University Athletic Association (UAA) foe and 14th-ranked Case Western Reserve University in its first match during spring break in Orlando, Florida. Once again, the matchup was played down to the wire with the Tartans,now 5-3 for the year, winning 5-4 this time.

Doubles action played another important role in the second matchup this season between the schools, as the Tartans held a 2-1 advantage, receiving wins from the first and third pairings. Senior Yannick Bloem (Geneva, Switzerland / EPFL, Lausanne) and senior Vayum Arora (Fremont, Calif. / Mission San Jose) won first by an 8-4 scored at third doubles before seniors Daniel Levine (Highland Park, Ill. / Boca Prep International School) and Chaz Downing (Newport Beach, Calif. / Corona Del Mar) won by the same score at first doubles.

The first two singles victories went to the Tartans with junior Robert Levin (Virginia Beach, Va. / Princess Anne) winning 6-1, 6-1 at fourth singles against Max Vicario. Freshman Clark Safran (Stanford, Calif. / Menlo School) then won 6-1, 6-4 at fifth singles to put the Tartans ahead by three points. Both Levin and Safran defeated the same opponents during the match at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship which the Spartans won, 5-4.

CWRU won at sixth singles and then at first singles to make the score 4-3 while the final two positions played to a third set.

Aaron Umen was able to get the better of sophomore Ray Boppana (Boxborough, Mass. / Acton Boxborough Regional) at third singles, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, to tie the match at 4-all but Downing rallied after a second-set tiebreaker to give the Tartans the victory. Downing's victory came by a 6-4, 6-7(4-7), 6-3 score at second singles.

The Tartans will continue a string of four matches against top-ranked opponents on Monday, March 11 at 11:30 a.m. against eighth-ranked Washington University in St. Louis. The Tartans and Bears played a 5-4 match in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship two weeks back with the Bears prevailing.