Taylor Named Division III UTR/ITA National Player of the Month

(TEMPE, Ariz.) – Carnegie Mellon University sophomore Danna Taylor (Orlando, Fla. / Circle Christian School) has been recognized by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) as the first Division III UTR/ITA National Player of the Month of the season for September.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and Universal Tennis and Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle are serving as the official title sponsor of a newly-instituted UTR/ITA National Player of the Month/Week Awards program that is debuting this fall.

Taylor repeated as both the ITA Southeast Regional singles and doubles champion this September. She breezed through the singles bracket and won the championship with a 6-0, 6-4 victory against University of Mary Washington's Claire Coleman. The sophomore then teamed with senior Courtney Ollis (Suffern, N.Y. / Suffern) to claim the doubles title. The tandems toughest match was in the championship match against teammates Lindy Cornwall and Bin Zheng, where they prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3).

During the month of September, Taylor defeated five NCAA Division I opponents while posting a 10-0 singles record while the sophomore and Ollis posted a 9-1 mark in doubles play, the lone setback coming to a Division I tandem.

The newly instituted awards program honors individuals from of all five collegiate divisions (NCAA DI, DII, DIII, NAIA and Junior College) each month during the fall and on a weekly basis in the spring.

This past Monday, Taylor was named University Athletic Association (UAA) Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week for the third time this season. Taylor garnered the honor this past week after her performance in two shutout wins for the Tartans over Case Western Reserve University and Christopher Newport University. Taylor and Ollis posted 8-2 and 8-3 wins at first doubles while she also won twice at first singles by scores of 6-0, 6-2 and 6-2, 7-5.