Heaney-Secord Seals Upset Victory as #21 Tartans Top #5 North Carolina Wesleyan

(FREDERICKSBURG, Va.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team, ranked 21st nationally, upended the #5 Battling Bishops of North Carolina Wesleyan Saturday, March 24.  The match was played on the campus of University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.  The win improves the Tartans dual record to 8-4 while the Battling Bishops are now 9-2.

Carnegie Mellon jumped out to a 3-0 lead following doubles play. The freshmen tandem of Christian Heaney-Secord (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) and Bryce Beisswanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint School) fell behind at third doubles 5-7.  The duo came from behind to force a tiebreaker and claimed the 9-8 (5) victory to give the Tartans momentum heading into singles play.

The Tartans took a 4-1 advantage after freshman Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) won 6-1, 7-5 at fourth singles.  The Battling Bishops tied the score 4-4 with victories at three, five and six singles leaving Heaney-Secord's match at second singles as the deciding factor.

Heaney-Secord dropped the first set 6-2 and fell behind 2-1 in the second.  The freshman then won the five of the next six games of the set to force a third and final set in which he won 6-4 to seal the upset victory for the Tartans.

Doubles
1. Duke Miller/Will Duncan (CMU) d. Alexey Rumyantsev/Robert Kjellberg 8-4
2. Jeremy King/Thomas Cooper (CMU) d. Rinat Khussainov/Artisiom Prostak 8-3
3. Christian Heaney-Secord/Bryce Beisswanger (CMU) d. Anton Filinov/Marcelo Prata 9-8 (5)

Singles
1. Khussainov d. Duke Miller (CMU) 6-3, 6-2
2. Christian Heaney-Secord (CMU) d. Kjellberg 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
3. Rumyantsev d. Harsha Rao (CMU) 6-4, 6-2
4. Will Duncan (CMU) d. Viktor Selander 6-1, 7-5
5. Fred Lemongo d. Jeremy King (CMU) 6-3, 6-3
6. Prostak d. Cooper (CMU) 6-4, 6-3

The Tartans will play the University of Mary Washington on Sunday, March 25 at 11:00 a.m.