The 13th-ranked Carnegie Mellon Tartans defeated No. 29 Denison, 5-4, on Saturday evening in Granville, Ohio.

DU fell behind 2-0 after dropping decisions at first and third doubles.  The senior duo of Tom Cawood and Tim Martin cut the deficit in half with an 8-6 victory over Thomas Cooper and Harsha Rao at the second flight.  The win was their seventh at No. 2 doubles and upped their overall record to 8-0.

Carnegie Mellon took a 4-2 advantage with a straight-set victory at third singles.  However, Cawood answered with a win at the first flight.  The senior handed Duke Miller, ranked fourth in the Atlantic South region, a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 loss.

The Big Red once again went down by a pair after suffering a loss at No. 4 singles.  Another senior, Tyler Cempre, stepped up to shrink the deficit to one for the third time in the match.  Cempre cruised to a 6-3 decision in the opening set at the fifth flight.  After falling behind 4-0 in the second set, the senior rattled off six-consecutive points to secure his ninth-straight victory.

Despite a valiant rally, the Tartans secured the decision with a hard-fought win at second singles.  Senior Matt McErlean pushed regionally-ranked Christian Heaney-Secord to the limit in both sets before dropping a pair of tiebreakers 7-3 and 8-6, respectively.  Freshman Grant Veltman ended the night on a positive note with a three-set win over Jooho Yu (4-6, 6-3, 10-4) at No. 6 singles.

Denison falls to 11-3 on the year, while Carnegie Mellon improves to 12-5.  The Big Red ends its five-game homestand on Wednesday when they host Oberlin College at 4:30 p.m.