No. 9 Tartans Open ITA Team Indoor Championship with Win Over Washington U.

(GREENCASTLE, Ind.) - The ninth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team opened the 2014 ITA National Team Indoor Championship with a 6-3 win over 12th-ranked Washington University in St. Louis. The Tartans advance to the semifinals for the fourth straight year and improve to 6-0 on the season.

Sophomore Bryn Raschke (Del Mar, Calif./Torrey Pines) and freshman Vanessa Pavia (Thornwood, N.Y./Academy of our Lady of Good Counsel) started the action with a win at No. 1 doubles for the Tartans. The pair led 4-1 and went on to win 8-3 to earn the first point of the match.

The Bears tied the match at 1-1 with a win at No. 2 doubles, as junior Angela Pratt (Saratoga, Calif./St. Francis) and sophomore Brooke Tsu (Hillsborough, Calif./Burlingame) fell 8-6. Pratt and Tsu were down 3-0 but pulled it back to 7-6 before the final point was won by the Bears.

Senior Katie Cecil (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View) and freshman Nicholle Torres (Weston, Fla./Great Neck South) put the Tartans up 2-1 with an 8-6 win at No. 3 doubles after the Washington pair of Betsy Edershile and Hanna Newstadt rallied from 7-4 to 7-6 before Cecil and Torres put the game away.

Moving into singles play, the Tartans needed three points to seal the win as one, two and three singles took to the court.

Pratt jumped out to a 6-3 lead at No. 2 singles and made quick work of the second set winning 6-0 to earn the Tartans third point.

Pavia and Tsu each won their first sets but were in a battle as Cecil jumped on the court and opened up a 6-1 lead at No. 4 singles. As Pavia and Tsu began a third set, Cecil put the Tartans ahead 4-1 winning her second set 6-0 over Theresa Petraskova.

The Bears pulled within 4-2 when Rebecca Ho defeated Tsu by winning the final two sets at No. 3 singles for a final score of 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-2. As Tsu fell, Pavia sealed the win for the Tartans with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles.

Torres went on to win 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5 singles while sophomore Elizabeth Martin (St. Simons Island, Ga./Frederica Academy) fell in a third set super tiebreaker 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 10-8.

The Tartans will now face second seed and eighth-ranked University of Chicago, who won 5-4 in the quarterfinal against DePauw University, on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.