In a second-straight match that came down to the wire, the 12th-ranked Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team suffered a 5-4 loss to 11th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University in the seventh-place match at the 2023 ITA Indoor National Championship in Nicholsville, Kentucky.
CWRU fell to 7-3 following the loss, while Carnegie Mellon improved to 8-3 with the win.
CWRU grabbed a 2-1 lead over the Tartans after doubles play with wins from sophomore Radha Patel and first-year Katalina Wang at no. 2 doubles, 8-3 against Anna Chow and Divya Venkatarama, and from juniors Katherine Wang and Pallavi Goculdas at no. 3 doubles, 8-4 against Zoe Angell and Sarah Yang. At no. 1 doubles, sophomores Hannah Kassaie and Lily McCloskey fell 8-4 to Crystal Zhou and Danna Taylor.
Katalina Wang earned the first singles point of the day, besting Venkatarama 6-1, 6-4 at no. 4 singles to give CWRU a 3-1 lead. However, the Tartans would even the team score with wins from Zhou at third singles, 6-4, 6-3 over Patel, and Manuela Van Cotthem at no. 6 singles, 6-4, 7-5 over Goculdas. Carnegie Mellon took a lead in the match after McCloskey fell in three sets to Taylor at no. 2 singles, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, but Kassaie followed with a 7-5, 6-3 win at no. 1 singles over Yang, knotting the team score at 4-4.
The match would come down to the fifth singles contest between Angell and sophomore Anna Kan. Kan won the first set 6-0, but Angell answered back with a 6-4 win in the second set, and edged Kan 7-5 in the third set to secure the match win and the seventh-place finish in the tournament for the Tartans.
Next up for the Spartans will be a trip to California for three matches during spring break from March 12 – 15. CWRU will face 31st-ranked Chapman, Redlands, and fourth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer during the trip.
