ORLANDO, Fla. — The Ave Women's Tennis team opened their week-long stay in the Theme Park Capital of the World Monday evening with a match against Carnegie Melon University. It was a tough day on the courts for the Gyrenes as they fell to the Tartans 7-0.

The doubles round featured some very exciting action from Ave Maria's pair in the top position. Clara Penido and Mariangel Nunez won six of the first 12 games to force a tiebreaker to decide the set. The tiebreaker ended up being one of the longest in AMU history going 38 points. Unfortunately, Penido and Nunez dropped the long 13^th game 20-18.

The Tartans won the other doubles pairing 6-1 and the Gyrenes could not fill the third position giving Carnegie Melon a sweep in the opening round.

In the singles round, Ave Maria had to forfeit one position, and the Tartans took the other five. The Gyrenes won two sets across the round with Penido winning her opening set 6-0 and Elizabeth Pince winning her second set 7-6. Both Gyrenes dropped the 10-point match tiebreak set 10-4.

With the loss, Ave Maria falls to 0-2 to start the year.

The Gyrenes are back in action Tuesday, March 3, as they take on the Saginaw Valley Sate Cardinals, an NCAA Division II school out of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. It is the first ever meeting between the Gyrenes and Cardinals on the tennis court.