Case Western Reserve University’s men’s tennis team hit the ground running this season with three consecutive wins in their opening weekend on Feb. 7. The Spartans, who are 12th ranked in Division III, started the spring semester with a 9-0 win over the University of Northwestern Ohio, in Toledo. The match started out strong with all three doubles teams coming out on top last Friday. Then, first-year singles player James Hopper and third-year singles player Jonathan Powell secured the next two wins needed to seal the game. However, the Spartans were unsatisfied with just barely getting by, and the rest of the singles players gained wins of their own, dropping Northwestern Ohio to a season record of 3-4. This was the type of season opener any team would be happy with. 

Feeling good after their first win, the Spartans traveled to Holland, Michigan to finish their weekend with two games against the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Hope College. Against Rose-Hulman, the Spartans gained their second win of the season with their 7-2 victory. The doubles teams had another sweep, with the third doubles team winning 8-4, the second doubles team winning 8-5, and the first doubles team finishing the sweep with an 8-3 win. The fifth and sixth singles players, second-year Max Vicario and third-year Aris Jhaveri, secured the team’s victory in two sets each. The second and fourth singles players, fourth-year Anthony Kanam and third-year Earl Hsieh, added two more wins to finish the match, boosting their season record to 2-0 heading into the third game of the weekend. 

To finish the weekend, CWRU took home another 9-0 win against Hope College. In the doubles competition, a clean 3-0 sweep completed a perfect start to the season. The first doubles win went to Hopper and third-year Matthew Chen, and second and third doubles wins went to the teams of second-year Neil Mabee and Powell, as well as Kanam and first-year John Kasner. In the singles competition, Powell sunk Hope’s Alec Berrodin in two 6-0 sets. Kasner and fourth-year Henry Squire followed suit, winning in a set of 6-1 and 6-0 each to bring the team’s lead to 6-0. The three other singles players also bested their opponents to complete the opening weekend with three wins. 

After a successful weekend, the Spartans look to continue their winning streak as they take on Wooster College and Oberlin College this Valentine’s Day at the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion.