From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics

The 11th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team opened the ITA National Team Indoor Championship against fourth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Friday, February 19, defeating the second-seed by a 5-4 score. The Tartans, seeded seventh for the tournament, are now 5-2 on the season.

Junior Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) won the fifth point for the Tartans when he won 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5 at third singles with the Tartans holding a 4-3 lead.

The Tartans held a 2-1 lead after doubles play with the number one pair of freshmen Daniel Levine(Highland Park, Ill./Boca Prep International School) and Vayum Arora (Fremont, Calif./Mission San Jose) starting things off with an 8-3 victory. The senior pair of Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India/IMG Pendleton School) and Yuvraj Kumar (New Delhi, India/Millfield School) were second to finish and won 8-6 at third doubles. No. 2 doubles needed a tiebreaker before Pomona-Pitzer's Marko Mandic and Spencer Simonides kept the Sagehens from falling behind 3-0, with a 9-8 (9-7) victory against sophomore Jeffrey Chen (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Zheng.

The Sagehens then took a 3-2 lead winning at first and fifth singles before Levine evened the match with a 6-4, 7-5 win at second singles. Arora then gave the Tartrans a 4-3 advantage with a come-from-behind win at fourth singles, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The Tartans advance to the semifinals and will face fifth-ranked Emory University at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 20. Emory, seeded third, topped No. 6 seed and 10th-ranked Kenyon College, 8-1, in the quarterfinals.