men's tennis player wearing red shirt returning a shot

Tartans Fall in Close 4-3 Match to DII Southern New Hampshire

(ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team opened its spring trip to Florida with a tough 4-3 loss to Division II Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday, March 5. The Tartans are now 3-4 overall after falling to their third straight Division II opponent by a 4-3 score.

Despite sweeping the scoreline in doubles play, the Tartans only led 1-0 due to Division II scoring rules where a team only gains one point for the best of three matches during doubles play. The third doubles pair of senior Sam Gibson (Chico, Calif. / Pleasant Valley) and junior Jonathan Nottingham (Philadelphia, Pa. / Masterman High School) finished first with a 6-2 score ahead of the first doubles pair of juniors Raahil Doshi (Singapore, Singapore / Anglo - Chinese School (Independent), Singapore) and Matthew Poh (Manhattan Beach, Calif. / Mira Costa) who also won 6-2. The second doubles group of sophomores Michael Fourchy (Fresno, Calif. / Clovis North) and Jaden D'Abreo (Portland, Ore. / Jesuit) won their match 6-4.

In singles play, sophomore Nicholas Wernink (Glen Cove, N.Y. / Friends Academy) gave the Tartans a 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-4 win at fifth singles. After Southern New Hampshire tied the match at 2-2 with wins at fourth and third singles, freshman William Wang (Austin, Texas / Lake Travis) put the Tartans a win away from match victory with a 6-1, 6-2 score at sixth singles.

Sophomore Brandon Aprill's (Mountain View, Calif. / The Menlo School) opponent at first singles forced a third set and won it 10-3 to again tie the score with just second singles to play.

The last match came down to sophomore Nadim Motaghedi (Cerritos, Calif. / Whitney) who nearly forced a third set but got topped in the tiebreakers in the second with a final score of 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in favor of Thomas Guy of Southern New Hampshire.

"I'm proud of the way we fought against a strong non-divisional opponent today," said head coach Mike Belmonte. "It was great to get a quality match under our belts to start the week, and we will be stronger and sharper as a result."

The Tartans will return to the court on Sunday, March 6, at 8:30 a.m. to play RPI at the USTA Campus.