In their second-to-last week of regular season play, the Case Western Reserve University men’s tennis team scored a pair of victories over Otterbein University and No. 25-ranked Trinity University. The pair of contest wins occurred on Friday, April 4, the same day the team celebrated its Senior Day in honor of the four graduating team members: fourth-years Casey Hishinuma, Ajay Mahenthiran, Ben Martin and Ansh Shah.
With the day marking a very special one for the seniors, Mahenthiran reflected on his time on the team.
“I have really enjoyed my time on the team,” he said. “It has been an amazing experience, and I have loved every minute of the matches I have been a part of during my career. The team has helped me stay driven not only in the classroom but also on the court and provided me with a great balance during my undergraduate career.”
The day began with play against Otterbein, specifically three doubles matches against the Cardinals. All three were won by CWRU, with all three pairs of Spartans achieving decisive wins over their competitors. Hishinuma and third-year Anmay Devaraj bested their opponents 6-1 in the No. 1 doubles match, the first finish of the match and giving CWRU a starting lead. This was followed by the No. 3 doubles, a match won by Mahenthiran and Martin 6-2—and the No. 2 doubles match—with victory achieved by third-years Rohan Bhat and Justin Prochnow.
Then came the singles matches, which were all swept by CWRU. The first match to finish was the fourth singles match, which was won by Hishinuma with a score of 6-0, 6-1. Mahenthiran was the next to finish, winning the first singles match 6-0, 6-3.
First-year Rowan Matorin followed this up with a win at No. 5 singles (6-1, 6-0), then third-year Matthew Plunkett achieved victory at No. 2 singles (6-2, 6-1). Subsequently, Devaraj took the win at No. 3 singles (6-1, 6-1), with first-year Jon Totorica rounding out the singles sweep at No. 6 (6-1, 6-0). With all said and done, CWRU had achieved a full 7-0 sweep over Otterbein, giving the Spartans their 15th sweep of the season.
Later in the day came the matches against Trinity, a contest the Spartans knew would be a more difficult challenge.
“We definitely kind of knew [Otterbein] was a match that we were expected to win so we tried to stay focused and finish that match efficiently to prepare for Trinity later that night,” Mahenthiran said. “Trinity has always been a top level D3 team so we kind of knew that we would have to bring our best if we wanted to beat them, which we were able to do.”
Indeed, the Spartans achieved a decisive victory over the Tigers. Beginning with the doubles matches, Totorica and first-year Leon Chen were the first to finish, winning the second doubles match with a score of 6-4. This was followed up by Mahenthiran and Bhat bagging the No. 3 doubles (6-4), before Devaraj and Hishinuma achieved a tiebreaker win at the No. 1 doubles with a score of 7-6 (4).
The Spartans continued their dominance in the singles matches, with the first finish coming from second-year George Kosseifi and his win in the second singles match (6-2, 6-2). Next to finish was Hishinuma, achieving victory in the fifth match (6-2, 6-3), followed by second-year Santiago Salazar Garza and his win at sixth singles (6-2, 6-1). Plunkett was the next to finish at No. 4 singles (6-4, 5-7, 10-7) before Mahenthiran emerged victorious in the first match (6-4, 5-7, 10-1). Devaraj was the last to finish at No. 3 singles, ultimately losing but nonetheless putting up a tough fight with a final score of 5-7, 7-6 (5), 10-8.
With the conclusion of these two contests, Hishinuma now ranks third in CWRU men’s tennis history for wins, having an overall record of 85-22. Mahenthrian now ties former Spartan Will Drougas (2011-15) for the fourth-most singles wins in program history, with his all-time record currently standing at 84-23.
Next weekend will mark the end of the regular season for the Spartans, as they hit the road for two critical away matches. The first will be against No. 3-ranked Denison on Friday, April 11, in Granville, Ohio, with the next being against No. 27-ranked Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Saturday, April 19th.