Results
 
PITTSBURGH – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team lost to Carnegie Mellon University in a close 4-3 decision Friday night at Alpha Tennis and Fitness in Pittsburgh.
 
While SRU is now 0-2 to start the year both setbacks have come via 4-3 finals against Division I Youngstown State University and CMU, the 12th-ranked team in Division III. The Tartans improved their record to 3-0 with the win.
 
Slippery Rock earned the doubles point for a second consecutive match after winning all three flights against CMU.
 
Nicole Kempton and Alissia Kivi, the No. 22 ranked doubles team in Division II, opened the night strong for The Rock with a 6-4 victory over Anna Chow and Rachel Li in first-flight competition. Kivi and Kempton have now won 12 of their first 14 matches as a team.
 
SRU proceeded to capture the doubles point thanks to its third-flight pairing of Georgie Lancaster and Dari Sakhanova who took a 6-4 decision of their own against Zoe Angell and Shelly Zinchenko.
 
Amaia Balaguer Brau and Tina Slovak followed their teammates' lead and sent Slippery Rock into the singles portion of the match with all the momentum via a 7-5 besting of Ancele Dolensek and Divya Venkatarama. SRU's No. 3 team is now a perfect 2-0 on the year.
 
While the majority of Friday's singles bouts were close, CMU ultimately captured four of the six contests to clinch the team victory.
 
The Rock and Tartans traded wins to open singles play with Victoria Gazda defeating Lancaster 6-1, 6-4 from the sixth flight only for Slovak to give SRU its lead back by way of a 6-4, 6-4 win over Joycie Lu from the fifth flight. Slovak has won both of her dual matches to start 2025.
 
However, the next three decisions belonged to Carnegie Mellon in a bevy of close calls that sealed the win for CMU.
 
Venkatarama first edged against Sakhanova 6-4, 6-3 in the fourth flight before a pair of nationally ranked Tartans secured three-set wins as Zinchenko bettered Kempton (4-6, 6-3, 6-1) and Dolensek eked out the match-deciding win against Kivi (6-4, 5-7, 6-2).
 
Entering the contest, Dolensek was ranked 10th in the Division III national singles rankings while Zinchenko was slotted 24th.
 
The final result of the match came out of the top flight where Balaguer Brau, the seventh-ranked singles athlete in Division II, beat three-time NCAA qualifier Sarah Yang in yet another close contest 3-6, 7-6, 6-2.
 
Balaguer Brau's triumph improved her overall record to 10-4 in 2024-25.
 
Slippery Rock's next two matches will come against Division I foes beginning 3 p.m. Feb. 19 at Cleveland State University and 6 p.m. Feb. 22 versus Bucknell University at the Westwood Racquet Club in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Cleveland State match is an exhibition and will not count towards The Rock's win-loss record.




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