The Case Western Reserve University men’s tennis team advanced to the championship match of the 2022 ITA Division III Men’s National Team Indoor Championship with an 8-1 win over Trinity University on Saturday afternoon at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club in Mayfield, Ohio.

The Spartans, seeded first in the draw, improve to 6-1 on the season and extend their regular season winning streak over Division III opponents to 25 matches. The Tigers, seeded fourth in the draw, fall to 5-2 on the season. CWRU will face Chicago, seeded sixth in the draw, in the championship match after the Maroons defeated WashU 8-1 in the other semifinal match. The Spartans and Maroons last faced off in the first round of the 2019 ITA Indoor National Championship, with Chicago prevailing 6-3. The Tigers will face WashU in the third place match.

The Spartans started the match by sweeping doubles play with all three matches ending in identical 8-4 scores. At first doubles, junior James Hopper and graduate student Jonathan Powell defeated Christian Settles and Hao Nguyen. Senior Chaitanya Aduru and junior Michael Sutanto followed with a win over Alessio Azzalini and Wilson Hamilton at third doubles. At second doubles, sophomores Vishwa Aduru and Sahil Dayal completed the sweep with a win over Cameron Krimbill and Cal Hunter.

In singles play, Chaitanya Aduru defeated Hamilton 6-1, 6-2 at fifth singles. Powell clinched the victory with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Eric Liao at sixth singles. First-year Ansh Shah, the 10th-ranked singles player in the country, took down Azzalini, the 30th-ranked singles player in the country, 6-1, 6-4 at third singles to pad the Spartan lead. Sutanto followed with an upset over Settles, the 40th-ranked singles player in the country, winning 6-4, 6-2 at fourth singles.

In a thrilling match between two of the top singles players in Division III, Hopper fell to Krimbill in three sets. Krimbill, the No. 7 singles player in the country, prevailed 7-6 in the first set, but Hopper, the No. 6 singles player in the country, rebounded with a 6-2 win in the second set. With the team match already decided, the third set was decided in a tiebreaker, which Hopper lost 10-9.

At second singles, Vishwa Aduru, the 32nd-ranked singles player in the country, prevailed in a third set tiebreaker over 29th-ranked Nguyen. Vishwa Aduru took the first set 7-6 but lost the second 4-6. However, he was able to prevail 1-0 in set three to give the Spartans the seven-point win.

CWRU guaranteed its best finish in program history at the ITA Indoor National Championships with the semifinal victory.

The championship match between Case Western Reserve and Chicago is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. on Sunday at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club. For more information on the event, including links to live results and video, go to https://www. wearecollegetennis.com/events/ events-division3-mens-indoors/ .