No. 7 Tartans Top No. 8 Pomona, 5-4

(CLAREMONT, Calif.) - Another tight match against a top-ranked West Coast team resulted in a 5-4 victory for the seventh-ranked Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team on Thursday, March 12 in Claremont, California. The Tartans (9-3) topped eighth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on its home court, dropping the Sagehens to 4-2.

The Sagehens held a 2-1 lead after doubles with the Tartans point coming from second doubles and sophomore Vanessa Pavia (Thornwood, N.Y./Academy of our Lady of Good Counsel) and freshman Stacy Chang (North Wales, Pa./North Penn), 8-3 against Shivani Doraiswami and Emily Chen.

The ever-steady senior, Bryn Raschke (Del Mar, Calif./Torrey Pines), picked up the first singles win, tying the match at 2-all against Maddie Gordon in the sixth slot, 6-2, 6-1.

The Sagehens then took the points at No. 4 and No. 2 singles ahead of Pavia collecting the win at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-4.

The final two points came down to three-set matches with junior Brooke Tsu (Hillsborough, Calif./Burlingame) playing at fifth singles and sophomore Nicholle Torres (Weston, Fla./Great Neck South) at third singles.

Tsu tied the match with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win. The junior led in the third set 5-2, but Emily Kuo made it interesting climbing back to 5-4 and ahead 40-30 with a chance to tie. Tsu held her ground and won the next three points for the 6-4 set win.

At the same time, Torres was in a fight in her third singles match. She forced the third set with a 6-2 win after falling in set one, 6-4. Ahead at 5-4, Emily Chen of Pomona broke Torres' serve to tie it at 5-5 but Torres responded breaking Chen's serve to take a 6-5 lead and then served out for the clinching point, winning on a big serve and forehand winner.

The Tartans close out their run of four matches in six days against 14th-ranked Sewanee on Friday, March 13 at 9:30 a.m.