Tartans Reign Supreme at ITA Southeast Regional Championships, Take Both Titles

(FREDERICKSBURG, Va.) - Once again, the Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis program has an ITA Southeast Regional Champion, three to be exact. Senior Lindy Cornwall (Poway, Calif. / Poway) and junior Bin Zheng (Miami, Fla. / Doral Academy) were crowned ITA Southeast Doubles Champions on Monday after defeating their own teammates in a third-set super tiebreaker while freshman Crystal Zhou (Austin, Texas / LASA) became the second Tartan freshman to win the ITA Southeast Singles Championship.

For the fourth straight year of ITA Regional competition, the Tartans won the doubles championship. This year, Cornwall and Zheng, who finished last year ranked fourth nationally had a battle on their hands from a Tartan freshmen duo. Ava Givone (Delray Beach, Fla. / Oxbridge Academy) and Crystal Zhou (Austin, Texas / LASA) won the second set of the best-of-three set match by a 7-6 (7-3) score after falling 6-2 to Cornwall and Zheng in the first set. The veteran pair was able to fight off their new teammates for a 10-8 super tiebreaker victory and earn a place at the ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia.

It will be a return trip for the upperclassmen as they also competed in the ITA Cup in 2019 after playing a Tartan duo for the Southeast Regional Championship and receiving an at-large bid to the national event.

Zhou's run through the singles bracket concluded with a pair of matches against Washington and Lee University counterparts. Zhou won the championship match by a 6-3, 6-3 score against sophomore Gabi Moss after topping her teammate, sophomore Margaret Carlton, 6-1, 6-3, in the semifinals.

Zhou's singles championship is the eight for the Tartan women's tennis program and third straight. She joins previous winners Danna Taylor (2018, 2019), Laura Chen (2008, 2009, 2010) and Amy Staloch (2005, 2006).

The women's draw for the ITA Cup, to be held from October 14-17, will be released late next week.