No. 20 women’s tennis falls in season opener against No. 10 CMU – Denison University – Denison Athletics

GRANVILLE, Ohio (February 17, 2024) – For the second season in a row, the Denison University women’s tennis team fell against Carnegie Mellon University in its season opener. After falling 9-0 on the road last season, the No. 20-ranked Big Red lost 6-3 this time around at home to the No. 10-ranked Tartans on Saturday inside the Mitchell Center.

Denison (0-1 overall) took a 2-1 lead after doubles as the freshmen pairing of Dasha Chistyakova and Maia Nowicki won in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (8-6), over Danna Taylor and Divya Venkatarama at No. 1 doubles. In addition, senior Kendall Schrader and junior Caroline Lopez combined to win 8-6 over Anna Chow and Zoe Angell in the No. 2 spot.

At No. 3 doubles, junior Caroline Kittle and sophomore Peyton Oda came up short by a score of 8-6 against Anika Joshi and Elaine Qian.

In singles, however, Carnegie Mellon (2-1) took a 4-2 lead as Oda fell 6-0, 6-3 against Sarah Yang in the top spot; Chistyakova fell 6-1, 6-0 to Venkatarama at No. 3 singles; and Kittle lost 6-2, 6-4 to Taylor in the No. 2 spot.

The clinching point for CMU came from Qian over freshman Ariana Rodriguez, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 6 singles.

Lopez fell in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, against Angell at No. 4 singles while Nowicki picked up Denison’s lone singles’ win with a three-set decision herself, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, over Joshi at No. 5 singles.

Next weekend will see the Big Red travel to Lexington, Virginia, to take on a trio of nationally-ranked teams on February 24-25 at the W&L Invitational. Up first will be a matchup with No. 8 Johns Hopkins University at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 24, followed by No. 33 Christopher Newport University at 4 p.m. Then on Sunday, February 25, the Big Red will battle the hosts from No. 25-ranked Washington & Lee University at 10 a.m.