The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked eighth in Division III, opened its 2017 spring season on Friday night with a 7-2 win over the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at the West Indy Racquet Club in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Spartans improved to 1-0 on the year with the win, while the Fightin' Engineers dropped to 1-1.
Case Western Reserve claimed wins in two of the three doubles matches to jump out to the early 2-1 lead. The third doubles match was the first to finish, with freshmen Anthony Kanam and Sam Concannon defeating Joe Kendall and Brendan Goldacker 8-4, and the second-doubles duo of seniors Phillip Gruber and James Fojtasek following with an 8-2 win over Cam Metzger and Andre Adam. The Spartans' lone setback came at first doubles, with senior Fred Daum and sophomore John Benedetto suffering a defeat to Brandon Benedict and Georges Adam, 9-8 (5).
Quick singles wins from sophomore Rob Stroup in the fourth match (6-1, 6-0 over Andre Adam) and senior Josh Dughi in the third match (6-2, 6-0 over Metzger) put the Spartans on the precipice of clinching the team win. Senior Kevin Dong secured the victory CWRU with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Andrew Schiffman in the sixth match.
Concannon picked up a straight set win in the fifth singles match, topping Austin Perry 6-2, 6-0. The remaining two matches each went to a tiebreaker set, with Fojtasek defeating Georges Adam 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the first singles match, and freshman Siddharth Rajupet losing 4-6, 7-6(4), 10-4 in the second singles match.
The Spartans will continue their opening weekend on Saturday, play a pair of matches at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. CWRU will face the host Little Giants at 9:00 a.m., followed by a 12:30 p.m. contest against Monmouth College.
