The 20th-ranked Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team defeated the University of Rochester 9-0 at the University Athletic Association Championships on Saturday to advance to the fifth-place match at the conference championships in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
The Spartans will take on 30th-ranked Brandeis University in the fifth-place match on Sunday at 9:00 a.m., after the Judges topped 29th-ranked New York University in their consolation match meeting on Saturday. Brandeis is 9-8 overall this season.
Case Western Reserve swept the three doubles matches on Saturday, as senior Sara Zargham and sophomore Nithya Kanagasegar topped Camila Garcia and Christine Ho 8-3 at first doubles, seniors Surya Khadilkar and Michelle Djohan bested Lauren Zickar and Alex Wolkoff 8-0 at second doubles, and senior Taylor Sweeney and freshman Jessica Liu earned an 8-1 win over Grace DiGiovanni and Molly Goodman at third doubles.
In singles play, five of the six Spartan victories were in straight sets. Kanagasegar topped Ho 6-2, 6-1 in the first match, and Liu earned a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Garcia at second singles. In the third singles match, Khadilkar bested Goodman 6-0, 6-0, and Sweeney picked up a 6-4, 6-2 win over Wolkoff at fourth singles. Rounding out the win, Djohan claimed a 6-2, 6-0 win over Darby McCall at fifth singles, and senior Kaitlin Mills battled to a 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 win over Zickar at sixth singles.
The Spartans improved to 13-5 overall with the win, while Rochester dropped to 6-10 with the loss.
Fans can follow the action with live twitter updates on the CWRU tennis account @casetennis1 and the UAA tennis account @uaatennis. Results and a recap of the match will be posted to athletics.case.edu following the completion of play.
