Staloch and Iyer Reach Championship

Sept. 24 - (FREDERICKSBURG, Va.) - The second day of the Wilson ITA Southeast Regional Women's Tennis Tournament proved to be a historic moment for the women's tennis team of Carnegie Mellon. The tournamnet, held at the University of Mary Washington, saw three Tartan singles players make the quarterfinals, the most in program history. With the three players advancing, Carnegie Mellon had the most representatives of the 16 contenders that includes a consistently ranked Washington & Lee (Va.) University program.

Junior Amy Staloch (Midland, Mich./H. H. Dow) not only won her first match of the day but advanced to the semifinals which will start Monday morning. The number one seeded player beat number 16 Katie Bouret of Washington & Lee 6-0, 6-1 in her early morning match and then returned to the court to defeat number eight Anita Bhamidipati (Johns Hopkins) 6-1, 6-0.

Joining Staloch in the quarterfinals were senior Mona Iyer (Charleston, W.Va./George Washington) and freshman Alisa Liebowitz (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills). Iyer, seeded sixth in the tournament, finished off #15 Amy Sheetz (University of Mary Washington) 6-0, 6-3 before falling to the third ranked player, Sonya Reynolds of Swarthmore College 6-3, 6-2. Liebowitz was pitted against two W&L team members beating Leah Weston in the round of 16 (6-1, 6-4), but fell in the quarterfinals to #2 Katie Tabb 6-2, 6-0.

All three Tartans were in doubles quarterfinal action on Sunday as Iyer and Staloch moved on to the semifinals. Iyer and Staloch, seeded number one, beat the seven seed of Brittnay Matava and Amanda Schubert of Johns Hopkins 8-5 and then topped Lauren Claire and Weston of Washington & Lee by the same score.

Liebowitz and fellow freshman Andrea Meythaler (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Prep), who were seeded eighth for the tournament, faced the number two seed pair of Tabb and Ginny Wortham (Washington & Lee) and fell 8-3.

Staloch will start her bid for a regional championship in semifinal singles action against Wortham (#4) at 8:00 a.m. Monday, September 25. Once singles action is finished, doubles will start where the junior will pair with Iyer yet again, for a championship bid against the three seed, Sonya Reynolds and Sara Sargent of Swarthmore College.