Senior CJ Krimbill became the first player in Case Western Reserve University history to break the century mark for career singles wins, as the sixth-ranked Spartans ended their regular season with 9-0 victories at the Carlton Courts over Capital University and John Carroll University on Sunday.
With the wins, the Spartans will head into next weekend's University Athletic Association Championships with an 18-6 overall record. Case Western Reserve has won each of its last three matches this season by 9-0 scores, and have now shutout their opponents on 10 occasions this season.
In between the matches, the Spartans honored their two graduating senior players – Krimbill and Louis Stuerke, who each went 2-0 in singles matches on Sunday and teamed up to win both of their doubles contests during the day. Krimbill's two singles wins raised his career ledger to 101-29, as he became just the second player in UAA history with at least 100 wins in both singles and doubles play over a career.
In the opening match of the day against Capital, Krimbill and Stuerke picked up an 8-1 win in the first doubles match, while juniors James Fojtasek and Phil Gruber won 8-1 at second doubles, and freshmen David Zakhodin and John Benedetto claimed an 8-2 with at third doubles.
In singles play, Krimbill earned a 6-1, 6-0 win at first singles, with Fojtasek following with a 6-0, 6-0 win at second singles, and Stuerke earning a 6-0, 6-0 win at third singles. Rounding out the win, junior Kevin Dong claimed a 3-6, 6-4, 10-4 win at fourth singles, junior Freddy Daum picked up a 6-1, 6-0 win at fifth singles, and Zakhodin earned a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the sixth singles match.
Capital dropped to 7-10 on the year with the loss.
In the second match against John Carroll, Krimbill and Stuerke won 8-5 at first doubles, with the pairings of Gruber and Fojtasek and Benedetto and Zakhodin each capturing 8-0 wins at second and third doubles, respectively.
Each of the six Spartans' singles players picked up straight set victories, with wins from Krimbill at first singles (6-3, 6-1), Fojtasek at second singles (6-0, 6-1), freshman Robert Stroup at third singles (6-3, 6-1), Stuerke at fourth singles (6-2, 6-0), Dong at fifth singles (6-1, 6-2), and junior Joshua Dughi at sixth singles (6-0, 6-1).
Case Western Reserve will now turn its attention towards the 2016 University Athletic Association Championships at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida from Thursday, April 21st through Saturday, April 23rd. Seeding for the tournament is scheduled to be announced on Monday.
