The Case Western Reserve University men’s and women’s tennis teams completed their fall season on Sept. 30.

The women’s team played strong Division I teams at the Detroit Mercy Invitational in Michigan, while the men’s team competed at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Fall Central Regional Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.

The tournament format for the Detroit Mercy Invitational was a hidden dual format and did not factor in team scores. The Spartans played Bowling Green State University in singles play and Akron University and host University of Detroit Mercy in doubles play.

Second-year student Mira Amin led the team with a victory in both singles and double play. Amin defeated Oakland’s Samantha Galloway in a close match, 3-6, 7-5, 13-11, and Akron’s Carla Flores and Alexis Steer 7-5 in doubles play with partner first-year student Sneha Karnam. Fourth-year CWRU student Jessica Liu earned a victory against Oakland’s Dasha Artamonova 4-6, 6-1, 10-7. First-year student Nidha Jha claimed the Spartans’ only win on the second day of the tournament against Akron’s Alexis Steer 3-6, 6-1, 10-5.

Liu commented on Jha and Amin’s play, saying, “[They] are very consistent at hitting to the baseline, and they do a good job at volleying middle balls.”

The men’s team finished with an overall singles record of 26-12 and a doubles record of 15-5. The 11th seeded duo of second-year student Matthew Chen and third-year student Zach Hennessey had a 4-1 record overall. They finished at the semifinals of the main doubles draw, after losing to top-seeded University of Chicago’s doubles pair Tyler Raclin and Jeremy Yuan, 8-3.

On Sunday, fourth-year student Rob Stroup claimed the win over Washington University of St. Louis’s Koki Takabatake to win the consolation draw for singles with a 5-1 record overall. Second-year student Earl Hsieh and first-year student Kenneth Boyette won the consolation draw for doubles, defeating Transylvania’s Arjun Gupta and Hugo Kouhkna 8-3 for the title.  

The doubles duo of Liu and Paolucci will head to Rome, Georgia to compete in the 2018 ITA Cup at Berry College. Seeded fourth, Liu and Paolucci will take on Bethel University’s Maggie Riermann and Grace Riermann, who won the Midwest Regional ITA tournament.

The Spartan tennis teams will resume play in the spring.