Girard Wins 450th! #10 Tartans Top Two Division II Opponents Sunday

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team, ranked 10th in Division III, hosted a pair of Division II schools on Sunday at The Club Sport and Life in Monroeville and improved its overall record to 8-1 with two wins. The Cardinal and Gray topped Indiana University of Pennsylvania 7-2 before knocking off Seton Hill University 9-0. The win over IUP marked Head Coach Andrew Girard's 450th combined victory. He now has 451 for his career, 233 women and 218 men, all coming at Carnegie Mellon.

In the Tartans win over IUP, they entered singles play up 3-0 after recording the sweep in doubles. The tandem of sophomore Vinaya Rao (Vernon Hills, Ill. / Adlai E. Stevenson) and freshman Melissa Strome (West Bloomfield, Mich. / West Bloomfield) at second doubles along with the team of senior Katie Lai (Hagatna, Guam / St. Andrew's Episcopal School) and junior Marina Selenica (Birmingham, Mich. / Detroit Country Day School) at third double both won by the score of 8-3. The Tartans completed the sweep when the top double duo of senior Cori Sidell (Redwood Shores, Calif. / Carlmont) and sophomore Courtney Ollis (Suffern, N.Y. / Suffern) won 9-7.

Strome was the first to finish singles when she won 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth spot slot to give the Tartans the 4-0 lead. IUP then took two points at second and third singles before Ollis sealed the team victory with a three-set win (6-1, 2-6, 6-4) at six singles. Freshman Alex Iordache (Princeton, N.J. / South Brunswick) and Rao also picked up wins in singles play with Iordache winning 6-4, 6-4 in the five spot and Rao winning 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (3) in number one.

The Tartans started the match against Seton Hill identically as they did against IUP. All three doubles tandems finished in the same order to complete the sweep for the second time on Sunday. Rao and Strome won 8-0 followed by Lai and Selenica with an 8-1 victory and Sidell and Ollis with an 8-6 win at the top spot.

All singles matches were won in straight sets with Ollis claiming the first point at sixth doubles and Iordache sealing the win with the fifth point at five singles. Ollis won 6-1, 6-0 and Iordache won6-2, 6-0. Freshman Alexander Cash (New Albany, Ohio / New Albany) then won 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth spot while freshman Hannah Rosenfield (Manchester, England / Windemere Preparatory School) was victorious at third singles winning 6-1, 6-3. Rao and Selenica competed at first and second singles and won by the scores of 7-6 (1), 6-4 and 6-2, 6-4, respectively.

The Tartans will return to action against Division III opponents on Friday, March 2 when they play the Washington University in St. Louis in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee.