In a match that lasted nearly seven hours the fifth-ranked Big Red staved off No. 8 Carnegie Mellon for a 5-4 victory in the third-place match of the 2011 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor Championship.

The match came down to the sixth-singles flight where junior Kate Westenberger (York, Pa./Dallastown) came through with a three-set win over Madison Rabson to lock-up the hard-fought win for her team.  Westenberger took the first set 6-2 but Rabson battled back in the second set to force a tiebreaker which she won, 7-5.  In the decisive third set, with her team cheering her on, Westenberger kept Rabson at bay, winning 6-2.

It was a bit of a roller coaster ride for head coach Peter Burling and his squad on Sunday.  They took a 2-1 lead after doubles play thanks to wins by Kristin Cobb (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood) and Erin Chadwell (Hillsborough, Calif./Traverse City Central [Ill.]) at No. 1 doubles and Sarah Short (Cheswick, Pa./Fox Chapel) and Kelsey Geppner (Ann Arbor, Mich./Father Gabriel Richard) at third doubles.

The Tartans would charge back and take a 3-2 lead after Lauren Chen defeated Cobb at No. 1 singles and Alexandra Tapak took down Short in three sets at No. 3 singles.

The Big Red turned the tide at second singles where Chadwell bounced back from a 4-6 loss in the first set to take the next two sets 6-4, 6-2.  That point tied the match at 3-3 and left things up to Alex Marcell (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) at No. 4 singles, Geppner at at No. 5 and Westenberger at No. 6.

Geppner struck first with a straight-set win over Jennifer Chui but the Tartans got new life when Cze-Ja Tam took down Marcell, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to knot the match at 4-4 eventually setting the stage for Westenberger to clinch the win.

The Big Red faced three top-10 teams this weekend in St. Peter, Minn. and came away with two victories out of the three matches played.  Their only loss came to No.4 ranked Chicago who suffered a 5-4 loss to No. 3 Emory in today's championship.

Denison will return to action on March 14, 2011 in Hilton Head, S.C. when they take on Rhodes at 11:30 a.m.