#8 Tartans Fall Short in NCAA Third Round to #7 Johns Hopkins

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's tennis team battled to a 5-0 defeat in the third round of the 2013 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship on Sunday against Johns Hopkins University on its home court. The No. 7 Blue Jays move on with a 20-2 record as the No. 8 Tartans finish the year with a 14-8 record.

Johns Hopkins led 3-0 after doubles play, coming from behind at No. 1 doubles to win 8-5 when junior Katie Cecil (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View) and sophomore Angela Pratt (Saratoga, Calif./St. Francis) led 5-3. Carnegie Mellon's No. 3 doubles team of senior Alexandra Tapak (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) and sophomore Lydia Utkin (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Jerome) put up a fight before falling 8-6 for the third Hopkins point. The No. 3 pair were down 6-3 before pulling within one at 6-5 and then made it 7-6 before Hopkins held serve for the match point.

Hopkins first point of the match came at No. 2 doubles when Shannon Herndon and Stephanie Rettig defeated sophomore Bryn Raschke (Del Mar, Calif./Torrey Pines) and freshman Brooke Tsu (Hillsborough, Calif./Burlingame) 8-3.

Sydney Lehman won the fourth point of the match for the visiting Blue Jays to make the score 4-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles against Tsu.

Pratt and Hailey Hogan played a tiebreaker in the first set at No. 2 singles, as Hogan won 7-6 (7-3) before freshman Elizabeth Martin (St. Simons Island, Ga./Frederica Academy) won her first set at No. 3 singles after a tiebreaker 7-6 (13-11). Cecil also won her first set 7-5 at No. 1 singles while Utkin battled at No. 6 singles to force a third set, falling 6-1 before winning 6-3.

Hopkins sewed up the win at No. 5 singles when Retting defeated freshman Abbey Hamstra (Wheatfield, Ind./Kankakee Valley) 6-4, 6-2.