Strong Showing By Women’s Tennis at Carnegie Mellon Invitational

Sept. 10 - (PITTSBURGH, Pa) - The Tartan women’s tennis team competed this weekend in the Carnegie Mellon Invitatitional, a tournament featuring players from four local colleges. In addition to host Carnegie Mellon, three Division I programs, Duquesne, Robert Morris and the University of Pittsburgh, entered individuals in the singles and doubles competition.

In flight #1, Tartan junior Amy Staloch (Midland, Mich. /H. H. Dow) won her opening match 6-1, 6-0 and eventually took fourth after losing the third-place match 6-3, 6-4 against Duquesne’s Jackie Hughes. Staloch’s doubles partner senior Mona Iyer (Charleston, W.Va./George Washington) defeated Duquesne’s number-one player, Johanna Bezjak (6-4, 6-1) to take fifth place in the flight. And in flight #1 of the doubles tournament, the Staloch/Iyer tandem took second after falling 8-5 in their finals match versus Pitt’s duo of Kristy Borza and Leah Freidman.

Sophomore Kelly Nakamura (Wahiawa, Hawaii / Punahou) advanced to the semi-finals of the third bracket with a victory over Sarah Hancock of Robert Morris in straight sets (6-0, 6-0) before losing to Duquesne’s Alicia McNamara (3-6, 6-2, 10-8). But Nakamura grabbed third place in Flight #3 with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Duquesne’s Alexandria Albano in the consolation match. Nakamura and teammate Claire Weiss (Hamden, Conn. /Hamden) advanced all the way to the finals in Flight #3 of doubles play and finished as the bracket’s runner-up.

Two Tartans had impressive debuts in Carnegie Mellon’s opening tournament of the fall. Freshman Alisa Liebowitz (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills) won her first college match 6-3, 6-1 and eventually took fourth place in her flight. Freshman Andrea Meythaler (Tampa, Fla. /Tampa Prep) won two matches during the flight; including a straight-set victory over Robert Morris’s Kathryn Skopinski.