The No. 8 ranked Denison Big Red got off to an outstanding start at the 2010 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor Championships, defeating No. 6 ranked Carnegie Mellon, 8-1 on Friday afternoon from Greencastle, Ind.

Denison took a 3-0 advantage in the match by sweeping doubles play.  At first doubles, Marta Drane (Wilmington, Del./Tower Hill) and Kristin Cobb (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood) defeated the Atlantic South region's top-ranked duo of Laura Chen and Ashley Herrick, 9-7.  Kara Zdanowski (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) and Erin Chadwell (Chicago, Ill./Traverse City Central) prevailed 8-6 at No. 2 doubles and first-year's Laura Krull (Bend, Ore./Keystone National) and Alex Marcell (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) answered the call with a 9-7 win over another regionally ranked team.

In singles, Drane set the tone at No. 1 singles with an impressive third-set super tiebreaker win over the top player in the Atlantic South Region, Laura Chen.  Drane dropped the first set, 1-6, but rallied for a 6-3 second-set win and a 7-6 (8-6) win in the decisive third set.

In the second singles flight, Cobb took care of Courtney Chinn, 6-2, 7-6 while Maggie Colvin (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange), Zdanowski and Chadwell rounded out the singles wins for DU.

Denison advances to Saturday's semifinal round of the ITA Indoor Championship where they will play the nation's third-ranked team, Emory University, at 2 p.m.