Tartans Pair go 4-2 on National Stage at ITA Cup

(ROME, Ga.) – The freshman pair of Raghav Jangbahadur and Daniel Kong of the Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team finished competition at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Cup at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Georgia, on Saturday, October 14 with a 2-1 record in singles play and a 2-1 record in doubles play.

Jangbahadur started Friday with a 2.5-hour quarterfinal match against the 2023 NCAA runner-up, junior Matt Kandel. The upperclassman was able to fight off the first-year college player with a come-from-behind win by a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) score.

Jangbahadur finished the tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 win against graduate student Joshua Bode of Concordia University (Texas).

Kong and Jangbahadur started their consolation quarterfinal match on Friday but it was suspended. The pair finished the match against sophomore Harrison Maitland-Carter and senior Matthew Michibata on Saturday morning with a 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7) win.

Kong and Jangbahadur went on to win their consolation semifinal match, the final match of the tournament, by a 6-1, 6-4 score against freshman Ian Jordan and graduate student Caleb Williams of Chapman University.

"Daniel and Raghav represented CMU with great tenacity on the national stage this weekend," said head coach Mike Belmonte. "I'm very proud of the work they put in to get here and the way they competed. It's not often first-years adapt to the college game so quickly and display such moxie. The future looks bright for CMU tennis."