From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics

Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis junior Daniel Levine (Highland Park, Ill./Boca Prep International School) played a three-set match to win the semifinal of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Oracle Cup on Friday morning in Rome, Georgia. With the victory, Levine becomes the third male Tartan to play for an ITA National Singles Championship. The three-day event is being held at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College.

Levine, the No. 2 seed, took on Brian Grodecki of Williams College and took the first set 6-3 before dropping the second 4-6. In the third and final set of the match, Grodecki forced a tiebreaker after trailing 3-1 and then 6-5, but Levine took control and won the tiebreaker, 7-1 to advance to the championship match on Saturday.

Levine will now play the top seed Mohanad Alhouni from Gustavus Adolphus College on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Alhouni advanced to the final with a 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 victory over Jonathan Jemison of Emory University.

The Tartans have had success at the ITA National Small College Championships, now named the ITA Oracle Cup, as Kayvon Fatahalian won the men's singles championship in 2000 and Abhishek Alla won it in 2013. Amy Staloch won the women's singles championship in 2005 while Laura Chen played for the national championship in 2009 as a freshman. Two doubles teams also played for the national championship as Staloch paired with Mona Iyer in 2004 and Chen paired with Courtney Chin in 2011.