Bethany Blass, Contributing Writer

The women’s tennis team had several victors at the Carnegie Mellon Invite on Sept. 12 and 13 in Pittsburgh. Maria Cioffi ’16 earned a key victory when she beat a Carnegie Mellon player 8-5. She joined Stephanie Pino ’16 for a 6-4 victory in doubles play, and Allison Lane ’18 and Christie Schneider ’15 beat their Carnegie Mellon doubles opponents 6-2 as well.

“Instead of match play based on a draw, the format was like a round-robin with singles and doubles match play. Singles was a shortened format,” Pino said.

Twenty total matches led to just six victories for the Bison. Emilie Bush ’18 went on to beat St. Francis 8-6 in singles play after her first loss on day one. Bush upgraded her overall record to 3-2.

Cioffi lost to Duquesne 8-3, but she helped guide the Orange and Blue through the tournament with the most wins in singles and doubles play. Melissa Parks ’17 beat a Duquesne challenger 8-6, and Lane beat Carnegie Mellon 8-4 on day two.

Madeline Melch ’18, last week’s title winner, had a rough weekend overall, losing 8-1 and 8-3 to Carnegie Mellon opponents.

Among other matches, Jorie Fox ’17 lost to St. Francis 9-7, Lane was defeated 8-6 by St. Francis, Parks lost to Carnegie Mellon 8-4, Schneider lost 8-2 to Carnegie Mellon, and Lane/Schneider lost 6-4 to Carnegie Mellon.

“I think it’s normal to see peaks and valleys in performances during this time of year, but regardless of personal performances, we want to remain focused on team support and team reinforcement,” head coach Rebecca Helt said.

The Bison will host the Bucknell Invite from Sept. 19-21.