A couple days before spring break, the Case Western Reserve University men’s tennis team traveled to southern California for 11 games over seven days. The team came away with eight wins and three losses, coming to an overall record of 14-4 for the regular season.
The Spartans kicked off the trip against two community college squads, coming away with a 9-0 victory over Ventura College and 8-1 win over Bakersfield College. Half the squad took on Ventura while the other half played against Bakersfield. Against Ventura, Fourth-year Vishwa Aduru/graduate student Diego Maza won first doubles 8-1, fourth-years Daniel French/Yuvraj Narang took second doubles 8-1 and fourth-year Sahil Dayal/graduate student Michael Sutanto took third doubles 8-4. CWRU then swept all six singles matches, including Sutanto first taking second singles 6-1, 6-1, third-year Ansh Shah winning fourth singles 6-1, 6-0 and Aduru taking first singles 6-4, 6-2.
Against Bakersfield, the Spartans were down 0-1 after losing 4-8 in second doubles. But CWRU came back, with second-year Anmay Devaraj/first-year George Kosseifi taking first doubles 8-5 and first-year Santiago Salazar Garza/second-year Rohan Bhat taking third doubles 8-0. The Spartans then swept the six singles matches. Highlights include first-year Derek Shiffer winning fourth singles 6-0, 6-1, second-year Justin Prochnow winning fifth singles 6-2, 6-1 and Kosseifi taking second singles 6-3, 6-3 to clinch the match.
The second day saw similar results, with the Spartans defeating Hardin-Simmons University 9-0 and Sewanee: The University of the South 8-1. Devaraj/Kosseifi, French/Narang and Aduru/Maza swept the doubles matches. Kosseifi won sixth singles 6-1, 6-1, and Shah took second singles 6-2, 6-0 to clinch the match. Against Sewanee, Dayal/Devaraj, Aduru/Maza and French/Narang swept doubles. Though Sewanee took a point in second singles, the Spartans clinched the match with victories in sixth, third and fourth singles. Shah was the closer in fourth singles with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
The Spartans’ perfect run thus far came to a halt on the third day, dropping to the University of California, Irvine 0-7 and Westcliff University 3-4. Again playing with split squads, the Spartans’ top players struggled against DI opponent UC Irvine. Though the matches were somewhat competitive, the Spartans got swept in the doubles and singles for the loss. Against Westcliff, second-year Matthew Plunkett/Prochnow won 6-3 in third doubles, but CWRU lost in the other two matches. In singles, only Plunkett, Salazar Garza and third-year Ben Martin secured victories.
CWRU bounced back the next day, first defeating the Pomona-Pitzer Colleges 7-2. The Spartans were only able to claim third doubles, with French/Narang winning 8-6. Pomona-Pitzer won first and second doubles 8-6. Those two losses didn’t matter as the Spartans swept all the singles matches to win the contest. The match against Chapman University was similarly close, with only Devaraj/Dayal winning a doubles match in second doubles 8-7 (1). Maza tied it 2-2 with a sixth singles 6-0, 6-1 win, but Chapman answered with a 6-2, 6-1 victory in first singles. However, Shah, Sutanto and third-year Ajay Mahenthiran won three straight matches to officially clinch the match for CWRU.
After a day off, the Spartans competed in the Stag-Hen Invitational. On the first day, they defeated Southwestern University 7-0 in the quarterfinals. However, the team fell to Bowdoin College 1-6 in the semifinals the next day. The Spartans lost all three doubles matches, with the sole point coming in the third singles as Mahenthiran took the game by retirement after splitting two sets 5-7, 6-1. The next day, CWRU defeated Babson College 7-0 to take third place in the invitational. After Aduru/Maza, Dayal/Devaraj and Narang/French swept the doubles, Aduru took first singles 7-6 (2), 6-1 to clinch the match.
CWRU will have almost two weeks off before they play the University of Northwestern Ohio and Wayne State University on March 29 in Lima, Ohio.