The men’s tennis team recently finished a tour of California over spring break, playing eight games against schools from San Diego to Pomono.

The Spartans, ranked 12th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, finished the trip with a 4-4 record, bringing them to a 10-7 record overall.

They kicked off the trip with dual wins against San Diego Mesa College (6-3) and Grossmont College, who was shut out 9-0, on March 8 in San Diego.

Junior C.J. Krimbill and senior Will Drougas were outstanding players in the match against San Diego Mesa. Krimbill and Drougas won both their singles and doubles matches, placing the number one and number two spots, respectively.

The Spartans then dominated the Grossmont Griffins in a total shutout later in the day, sweeping every match. Both the doubles No. 1 and No. 2 teams defeated their opponents in straight sets.

Unfortunately the team next traveled to the Costa Mesa Tennis Center, in the Costa Mesa suburb of Los Angeles, where they lost straight matches to University Athletic Association foe Washington (Mo.) and Vanguard University.

Against Washington Case lost 8-1, only managing one matching victory. They were then shut out 9-0 by undefeated Vanguard, the fourth-ranked team in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

The Spartan tennis team then made the trip to Concordia, where they lost a tight contest with number nine in the NAIA rankings, Concordia University Irvine.

The number one doubles team, made up of Krimbill and junior Louis Stuerke, managed an 8-6 victory. Stuerke also had a three-set singles victory.

Senior Bas van Lent eked out an exhausting super tiebreaker win, winning the last set 11-9. A super tiebreak is any match where the last set is won by over 10 games. Additionally for a super-duper tiebreak (you read that right), the winner must win at least 12 games in the final set. The longest ever final set was played at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships in London, where John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut with a 70-68 final set.

Case Western Reserve University next traveled to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to compete in the Stag-Hen Invitational, where they finished fifth.

On the first day, they lost to top-10 Pomona Pitzer College 7-2, before recovering in the afternoon to pull out a 7-2 win over Whitman College.

The loss in the morning was hampered by a doubles shutout. Krimbill and junior Viswajit Simhadri both recorded wins for the Spartans over Pomona Pitzer.

However the team bounced back to win handily over No. 15 Whitman. CWRU took five of six singles matches, winning all of them in straight sets, and won both the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles matches.

The Spartans qualified for the fifth-place match, winning over Wesleyan University 7-2 to finish in the top five in the Stag-Hen Invitational.

In this victory, Drougas, Krimbill and Stuerke were all double winners, winning both singles and doubles and leading CWRU to a sweep of the doubles matches.

After a busy and difficult spring break, the Spartans will rest until March 27, when they host John Carroll University and Ohio Wesleyan University at home at the Carlton Courts.