The New York University men's tennis team narrowly missed pulling off a huge win in the first round of the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship, as the Violets fell 5-4 to nationally ranked Carnegie Mellon University in a five-hour thriller on Thursday, April 26, at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, FL.
 
The seventh-seeded Violets opened play at the UAA Championship against the second-seeded Tartans, who are ranked #13 in Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The match was as close as the score indicates, with each team trading victories nearly the entire way.
 
“All season long I've had confidence in our team, and this was a chance for us to show what we're capable of,” said NYU head coach Horace Choy. “We gave the #13 team in the nation all they could handle. Obviously, I would have been happier if the match had gone our way, but I think we opened some eyes today. I don't know if anyone in the UAA expected us to give Carnegie Mellon this kind of match.”
 
Carnegie Mellon began the match strong, taking second and third doubles to build a 2-0 lead.
 
With NYU in a hole, however, the squad's #1 doubles tandem of Connor Witty and Steven Wu dug deep to win their contest in a tiebreak. Witty and Wu earned a 9-8 (7-3) victory, taking the last four points of the tiebreak to salvage a point for the Violets in doubles play.
 
With the match moving over to singles play, the teams alternated victories the rest of the way. CJ Leong pulled NYU even, taking his #3 singles match 6-4, 6-1 over Will Duncan.
 
Thomas Cooper pulled the Tartans back ahead with a 6-0, 6-1 defeat of Tim Wu at #5 singles, but James Dean again knotted things up with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Harsha Rao at #4.
 
With the score tied at 3-3, the final three matches all went three sets, beginning with the #1 singles matchup. Witty battled back from dropping the first set in a tiebreak to take the second. He ultimately fell, however, as Duke Miller pulled out the 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-1 win.
 
Steven Wu again tied things up with a huge victory for NYU at #2. He defeated Christian Heaney-Secord 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, making the match 4-4 and leaving the decisive point to the match-up at #6 singles.
 
Carnegie Mellon's Jooho Yu ultimately pulled out the win for the Tartans at #6, beating Ting Yee Lai – who battled through cramps in the third set – 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
 
“We played three outdoor matches all season before this, and the hottest day was maybe 75 degrees,” noted Choy. “Today was in the high 80's, which was a major factor. Ting got off to a good start, winning the first set and playing close in the second. But once he started cramping there wasn't much he could do. He competed all the way to the end. His body just gave out.”
 
With the loss, NYU moves to the consolation bracket. The squad will face Brandeis University at 9:00 am tomorrow, April 27, with the winner advancing to the Fifth-Place Match.
 
The Violets and Judges met earlier in the season, with Brandeis earning a 6-3 victory in a non-conference match-up on March 9, also at a neutral site.
 

Carnegie Mellon 5, NYU 4 

Singles
1. Duke Miller (CMU) def. Connor Witty (NYU) 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-1
2. Steven Wu (NYU) def. Christian Heaney-Secord (CMU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
3. CJ Leong (NYU) def. Will Duncan (CMU) 6-4, 6-1
4. James Dean (NYU) def. Harsha Rao (CMU) 6-2, 6-3
5. Thomas Cooper (CMU) def. Tim Wu (NYU) 6-0, 6-1
6. Jooho Yu (CMU) def. Ting Yee Lai (NYU) 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
 
Doubles
1. Witty/Steven Wu (NYU) def. Miller/Duncan (CMU) 9-8 (7-3)
2. Cooper/Yu (CMU) def. Lai/William Smithline (NYU) 8-4
3. Heaney-Secord/Bryce Beisswanger (CMU) def. Leong/Bowen Xu (NYU) 8-3