ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Kenyon College women's tennis team could not take down the No. 11-ranked Carnegie Mellon University Tartans, falling 7-2 in their second spring break dual at the USTA National Campus.

The No. 27-ranked Owls fall to 4-2 on the season, while the No. 11 Tartans improve to 11-3. The International Tennis Association (ITA) will release its first update to its rankings on March 10 since the initial preseason poll that came out on January 27.

The dual opened with three competitive doubles contests, but Carnegie Mellon compiled an early 3-0 advantage with wins in all three bouts. Eleni Lazaridou and Eleni Dakos fell 8-4 at No. 1, but the results got progressively closer. At No. 3, Natalie Connelly and Lalasa Nagireddy kept it close before falling 8-7. A tiebreaker was needed to decide the No. 2 doubles match, but Allaire Berl and Erika Pontillo came out on the wrong side of an 8-7 decision after falling 7-0 in the tiebreaker.

Kenyon's two singles points came nearly as far apart as possible, both in terms of match number and order of finish. Nagireddy took care of business in the No. 6 singles match, winning 6-1, 6-2. The match was the second to finish after Pontillo fell 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5.

Lazaridou clinched a second point for the Owls after a back-and-forth battle in the No. 1 match, but the Tartans had secured the win by the time the final match ended. Catriona MacIntosh fell 6-1, 6-4 in the No. 4 match, which clinched the best-of-nine dual for CMU. At No. 3, Dakos fell 6-4, 6-4 before Berl dropped a closely contested No. 2 match 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). Lazaridou helped the Owls end on a high note with a hard-fought victory in the top spot, winning 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 10-8.

Kenyon has an off day before returning to action on Saturday, March 11, when the Owls will take on North Carolina Wesleyan College (0-2) at 12 p.m. and Hardin-Simmons University (4-4) at 3:30 p.m.