Tartans End Season at Quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship

(MASON, Ohio) - The fifth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team played third-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Monday, May 18 in the quarterfinals of the 2015 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, and eventually finished indoors at the Camargo Raquet Club.  The teams battled through a pair of rain delays before the Athenas defeated the Tartans, 5-1.

The Athenas grabbed an early 2-0 lead taking points at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.  The Tartans No. 3 doubles duo of sophomore Nicholle Torres (Weston, Fla./Great Neck South) and junior Brooke Tsu (Hillsborough, Calif./Burlingame) trailed 7-4 and battled back to knot the score at 8-8 forcing a tiebreaker.  The tandem dropped a thrilling tiebreaker 7-5, as CMS took a 3-0 lead into singles play.

As the teams ended the first set in singles play, a second rain delay pushed play indoors.  Following a 90-minute delay, CMS took a 4-0 lead with a win at No. 2 singles before Carnegie Mellon jumped on the board with a victory from Tsu at No. 4 singles.  Tsu defeated Lindsay Brown in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (3).

Shortly following Tsu's victory, CMS took its fifth and final point needed to claim the victory at No. 3 singles.  As the match ended, sophomore Vanessa Pavia (Thornwood, N.Y./Academy of our Lady of Good Counsel) was ahead 2-6, 6-4, 5-3 at No. 1 singles and freshman Cori Sidell (Redwood Shores, Calif./Carlmont) was up 6-3, 2-6, 6-5 at No. 5 singles. Senior Bryn Raschke (Del Mar, Calif./Torrey Pines) was even at one set apiece at No. 6 singles, but trailed 5-4 in the third set.

Carnegie Mellon concludes its season with a record of 17-7 while CMS improved to 25-1 and will play University Athletic Association rival, Emory University, in the semifinals.

The quarterfinals appearance was the Tartans fifth in the last seven years.