Men's tennis places fourth in championship

The 16th-ranked Carnegie Mellon men’s tennis team suffered a tough 6–3 loss against Case Western Reserve University on Sunday morning to take fourth place in the UAA Conference Championships. This makes the Tartans’ record 13–7 for the season.

“We’ve had some tough losses to deal with this weekend, but they’ve been against good teams and we’re looking ahead now,” first-year Yuvraj Kumar said.

The team received points in the match against Case Western from the doubles win by sophomore Bryce Beisswanger and Kumar, along with a win by senior Duke Miller at No. 3 singles and a No. 6 singles victory by senior Jooho Yu.

Although the Tartans led 4–3, the match point came down to the No. 1 and No. 2 singles games, both of which were heart-wrenching tiebreakers. Both sophomore Christian Heaney-Secord and Kumar won their first sets but fell in the last two sets.

Yesterday’s loss was especially tough after a 5–4 loss to No. 3 Emory University Eagles just the day before. Yu and sophomore Thomas Cooper tied the match at 1–1 with an 8-5 win at No. 2 doubles before Beisswanger and Kumar came from behind to win 9–7 at No. 3 doubles.

Holding a 2–1 lead, the Tartans fell in singles matches at No. 4 and No. 3 to lose the lead before first-year Abhishek Alla won 6-2, 6–2 at No. 2 singles. This tied the overall score at 3–3.

After Alla’s win, the Eagles regained the lead with a win at No. 5 singles and secured the win with a victory at No. 6 singles.

“We are still trying to come together as a team,” Heaney-Secord said. “We are close to having a breakthrough but haven’t gotten one yet. We played Emory really tough though.”

The Tartans’ losses were preceded by a victory Friday against the University of Chicago. Carnegie Mellon began the match sweeping doubles play before taking a 4–0 lead as Alla won 6–1, 6–2 at No. 2 singles.

Alla’s victory was followed by a win by Heaney-Secord, who sealed the Tartan’s victory by winning a three-set match, coming back to win in 6–2, 6–1 after dropping the first set 5–7.

Carnegie Mellon then sealed the win at No. 3 and No. 4 singles. Miller won in with 6–0, 4–6, 6–4 at No. 3 while Kumar won 7–5, 6–3 at No. 4.

Overall, the team remains positive and looks forward to future matches and new opportunities to improve its record.

“We had a good win against Chicago, which really boosted our confidence into Emory,” Kumar said. “I think we’re just getting better with every match and if we make NCAA regionals we’re going to come out firing.”