#5 Women’s Tennis Advances to Second Straight ITA Team Indoor National Championship

(GREENCASTLE, Ind.) – The fifth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team competed in the semifinal match of the 2013 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Division III Women's Team Indoor Championship, Saturday, March 2 on the campus of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.  The Tartans played Trinity University (Texas) and came away with an 8-1 victory over the 15th-ranked Tigers to advance to the national final match for the second consecutive year.  The win improves Carnegie Mellon's dual-match record to 5-1 on the season and the Tigers are now 3-6.

Carnegie Mellon will play for its second ITA National Indoor Championship in the past five years on Sunday, March 3.  The Tartans, who won the inaugural championship in 2009 and were runners-up last season, will face Johns Hopkins University at 10:00 a.m. The Blue Jays are ranked 11th in the nation.

Sophomores doubles pair of Bryn Raschke (Del Mar, Calif./Torrey Pines) and Chelsea Motie (Melbourne, Fla./West Shore) won the first point of the day with an 8-1 win at No. 2 doubles. After Trinity tied the match at 1-1 with a win at No. 3 doubles, junior Katie Cecil (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View) and sophomore Angela Pratt (Saratoga, Calif./St. Francis) paired to win at No. 1, 8-3.

Motie gave the Tartans a 3-1 advantage with her straight set victory at No. 2 singles winning 6-1, 6-4.  Shortly following Motie's victory, Cecil also won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, in the first spot.

Freshman Elizabeth Martin (St. Simons Island, Ga./Frederica Academy) sealed the Tartan victory with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles.  

The success didn't stop there for the Tartans. Pratt won at No. 4 singles 6-0, 6-1 before freshman Brooke Tsu (Hillsborough, Calif./Burlingame) won in straight sets as well, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 5 singles, extending the Tartans lead to 7-1.   Freshman Abbey Hamstra (Wheatfield, Ind./Kankakee Valley) capped the night off with the Tartans fifth straight set victory at six singles winning 6-3, 6-3.