Tartans Host Fall Invitational

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team hosted a fall invitational with Division I Duquesne University and Saint Francis University competing against the Tartans on Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25. The competition was the second weekend of events for the Tartans who previously played at the Kenyon College Invitational.

Graduate student Ray Boppana (Boxborough, Mass. / Acton Boxborough Regional) and junior Jonathan Nottingham (Philadelphia, Pa. / Masterman High School) were the only doubles pair to compete on Friday for the Tartans. The duo kicked off the event by defeating senior Sebastian Pinos and junior Christian Banti of Saint Francis, 6-4.

Five Tartans won singles matches on Friday night, four needing a third-set super tiebreaker to take down their opponent.

Sophomore Brandon Aprill (Mountain View, Calif. / The Menlo School) defeated Mascioli of Duquesne by a 1-6, 7-5, 10-7 score with sophomore Derek Wong (La Jolla, Calif. / Francis Parker) winning his singles match against senior Daniel Vinces of Saint Francis in a lengthy third-set super tiebreaker by set scores of 6-3, 3-6, 13-11.

Sophomore Nicholas Wernink (Glen Cove, N.Y. / Friends Academy) earned his first career victory as a Tartan when he topped sophomore Andrew Texeira of Saint Francis in a third-set super tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-3, 10-5.

Sophomore Arjan Bedi (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Sewickley Academy) also won his singles match on Friday by defeating senior Matt Blose of Saint Francis, 6-3, 6-0.

Junior Matthew Poh (Manhattan Beach, Calif. / Mira Costa) also pulled out a three-set win coming from behind to force the super tiebreaker with a final score of 2-6, 7-5, 10-7.

On Saturday, four Carnegie Mellon doubles pairs picked up victories while the Tartans won five singles matches. Multi winners for the day include sophomore Jaden D'Abreo (Portland, Ore. / Jesuit), freshman Benny Zhou (Allen, Texas / iUniversity Prep) and Nottingham.

D'Abreo paired with Wong for a 6-4 win against Pinos and Banti before winning 6-2, 6-3 against senior Samuel Ghigiarelli of Saint Francis.

Zhou paired with Boppana to win 6-2 against Blose and freshman Matt Kosar and later won 7-5, 6-4 against Vinces.

Nottingham and Poh topped graduate student Alejandro Rodriguez-Vidal and sophomore Tamirlan Teberikov of Duquense 6-3 while Nottingham finished the day with a 1-6, 6-0, 10-5 victory against Ghigiarelli.

The Tartans will next compete at the ITA Southeast Regional hosted by the University of Mary Washington on October 1-3.