ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – Freshman No. 1 singles player Christopher Krimbill (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain) secured the winning point in the third set of his match as the No. 13 nationally-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team defeated No. 16 Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) by a 6-3 score in the third-place match of the 2013 University Athletic Association Championship at Sanlando Park. The Spartans equal the top conference finish in program history and also bolster their resume for an at-large berth to the NCAA Championship Tournament.
The second-seeded Spartans (21-6 overall, 2-1 UAA) finish third for the second season in a row and the third time in program history (1999, 2012, 2013), while the fourth-seeded Tartans drop to 13-7 overall and 1-2 in the Association.
Case grabbed a 2-1 lead in doubles action with wins at the top-two positions. At No. 2, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region's 11th-ranked tandem of senior Kyle Gerber (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Preparatory) and Krimbill were the first to finish and edged past the Tartan team of Thomas Cooper and Jooho Yu, 8-6. The first flight featured a matchup between a pair of regionally-ranked duos with junior John Healey (Columbia, Md./Atholton) and senior Nicolas Howe (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Shaker Heights), ranked No. 2 in the Central, defeated the Atlantic South's sixth-ranked tandem of Duke Miller and Christian Heaney-Secord.
In singles, the Tartans tied the match at 2-2 with a victory at No. 3.
However, the Spartans regained the lead at 4-2 with victories at No. 5 by Healey versus Kosuke Hasegawa by scores of 6-1, 7-5 and at No. 4 as junior Eric Klawitter (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) won by tallies of 6-4, 6-2 versus Yuvraj Kumar.
At No. 6, the Tartans pulled to within one at 4-3 as the match came down to play in the top-two singles matches. At No. 1, Krimbill lost the first set versus Heaney-Secord, 6-3, but battled back and evened the match with a 7-5 second-set win. The first-year Spartan then secured the team victory and cruised in the decisive set, 6-0.
In the final match on the court, sophomore Will Drougas (Roanoke, Va./Salem) won the opening set versus Abhishek Alla by a 6-2 score, but fell in the second set, 7-6. Not done yet, Drougas battled Alla into a decisive tiebreaker and grabbed the sixth point with a 7-6 win.
The Spartans, who added to their school-record win total Sunday, now await word from the NCAA Championship selection committee with qualifying teams expected to be announced via a press release on Monday, May 6 at 7:00 p.m. on NCAA.com. Individual qualifiers will be announced on Wednesday, May 8.
