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PITTSBURGH – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team had a promising start to its 2024-25 season this weekend at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational.
 
The Carnegie Mellon Invite was a two-day individual competition held at the CMU Tennis Courts that included athletes from The Rock, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University (Pa.) and Saint Francis University.
 
All eight members of The Rock's roster competed in at least one match. The doubles play of Nicole Kempton, the 2023-24 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Freshman of the Year, and Alissia Kivi, a freshman from Harjumaa, Estonia, highlighted the weekend.
 
Kempton and Kivi registered a flawless 4-0 record with wins against Saint Francis' Dasha Chichkina / Diana Zuba (7-5) and Reagen Mangan / Sara Jankovic (6-1) as well as CMU's Zoe Angell / Anna Chow (6-3) and Ainika Hou / Rachel Li (6-1).
 
To go with their doubles success, Kivi won both of her singles matches against Jankovic (8-5) and Angell (8-1) while Kempton split her contests with Carnegie Mellon counterparts Anika Joshi (8-6 win) and Joycie Lu (8-6 loss).
 
Reigning PSAC West Athlete of the Year Amaia Balaguer Brau logged matching 2-1 records in both singles and doubles competition. Individually, she beat Joshi (8-1) and CMU's Divya Venkatarama (8-2) while dropping an 8-5 decision to Dasha Chichkina of Saint Francis.
 
Doubles play saw Balaguer Brau partner with Georgie Lancaster to earn wins over Saint Francis' Morgan Tuffs / Mallory Thomas (6-2) and CMU's Angell / Victoria Gazda (7-5) accompanied by a 6-1 loss to Venkatarama / Shelly Zinchenko.
 
In addition to her doubles results, Lancaster started her senior campaign by splitting two singles matches courtesy of an 8-0 shutout of SFU's Gretta Rhodes and a tight 8-6 setback against Sophia Cunningham of Saint Francis.
 
Dari Sakhanova closed her opening weekend by going 2-0 in singles matches against Angell (8-4) and Jankovic (8-2) and 2-2 in doubles bouts while teaming with Tina Slovak and Marika Kempinski, a freshman out of Bayreuth, Germany.
 
Kempinski's first weekend of collegiate tennis included matching 1-1 singles and doubles performances. Her first singles win at The Rock was an 8-4 triumph over Rhodes and her inaugural doubles victory was of the 6-4 variety with Sakhanova against Hou and Joshi.
 
Full results from the 2024 Carnegie Mellon Invitational can be found HERE or at the top of the page.
 
Slippery Rock continues the individual portion of its 2024-25 season Sept. 7-8 at the Husky Invitational in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.






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