The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked 10th in Division III, was dominant on Monday afternoon, topping Vassar College 9-0 in a match held on the Pomona-Pitzer tennis courts in Claremont, California.
The win raised the Spartans' record 9-2 overall on the year, while Vassar fell to 6-4.
Case Western Reserve started strong in doubles play, as sophomore John Benedetto and senior Fred Daum topped Juan Felipe Laso and Alexander Luckmann 8-4 at no. 1 doubles, and seniors James Fojtasek and Phillip Gruber claimed an 8-1 win over Allen Sokolov and Jeremy Auh at no. 2 doubles. Sophomore David Zakhodin and freshman Anthony Kanam bumped the Spartans' lead to 3-0 with an 8-5 win at third doubles over Jamie Anderson and Nick Zuczek.
The Spartans went on to win all six singles matches on Monday in straight sets. Freshman Sam Concannon, won 6-4, 6-1 over Luckmann at fourth singles and Kanam defeated Zamir Birnbach 6-0, 6-2 at sixth singles to give CWRU a 5-0 lead and clinch the team victory. The win was the 10th-straight for Kanam, who improved to a team-leading 13-3 in singles play this season.
Fojtasek added a 6-2, 6-4 victory at first singles over Nick Litsky, ranked 16th in the Northeast Region. Other singles wins came from freshman Siddharth Rajupet over Sokolov, 6-3, 7-6 (5) at no. 2 singles, sophomore Rob Stroup over Laso, 6-0, 6-3 at no. 3 singles, and senior Kevin Dong over Nick Lee, 6-1, 6-3 at no. 5 singles.
Case Western Reserve will be back in action tomorrow, as it begins play at the 2017 Stag-Hen Invitational. The Spartans will open competition at the tournament against host and ninth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer, as CWRU will look to avenge a 7-2 loss to the Sagehens in late February in the fifth-place match at the ITA Regionals. The match will begin at 12:00 p.m. ET, with a second match in the tournament scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
