The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked first in Division III, split a pair of matches on Sunday, defeating Kalamazoo College, the 31st-ranked Division III squad, 9-0 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, before falling to one of the top collegiate tennis program in the country later in the day, dropping a 6-1 decision at the University of Michigan, the sixth-ranked Division I squad.
The split of Sunday's two matches set the Spartans' record to 18-3 for the campaign.
In the opening match of the day against Kalamazoo, sophomores Vishwa Aduru and Sahil Dayal opened doubles play with an 8-2 win over Adnan Alousi and Casey Johnson at no. 2 doubles. Senior Chaitanya Aduru and junior Michael Sutanto followed shortly after with an 8-2 win at third doubles over Gabe Vidinas and Parker Foster to extend the Spartans' lead to 2-0, and at no. 1 doubles, junior James Hopper and graduate student Jonathan Powell (ranked second in the Central Region) pushed the CWRU advantage to 3-0 with an 8-6 win against Ian Yi and Peter Fitzgerald (ranked ninth in the Central Region).
First-year Ajay Mahenthiran opened singles play for the Spartans with a quick 6-1, 6-0 win over Johnston in the fourth singles match, and first-year and regionally ninth-ranked Ansh Shah followed with a 6-0, 6-2 win against Vidinas in the second singles contest to clinch the team win for CWRU.
CWRU continued to add to the victory, with Vishwa Aduru, ranked 16th in the Central Region, defeating Yi, ranked 10th in the region, 6-4, 6-2 in the first singles match. At third singles, Sutanto, ranked 22nd in the Central Region, bested Fitzgerald in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, while first-year Pranav Ikkurthy was flawless in a 6-0, 6-0 win at sixth singles over Parker Foster. First-year Casey Hishinuma wrapped up the sweep with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Alousi at fifth sngles.
The win was the Spartans' ninth-straight victory and their 36th-consecutive regular season win against a Division III opponent. CWRU also improved to 11-0 this season against ranked Division III opposition. Kalamazoo dropped to 7-6 following the loss.
CWRU's lone point in the match against Michigan later in the day came in the no. 5 singles contest, where Chaitanya Aduru defeated Ryan Fu in three sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
Earlier in the match, Michigan claimed the doubles point (using the Division I scoring format), with a 6-1 win by Patron Hanchaikul and Jacob Bickersteth over Vishwa Aduru and Dayal at second doubles, and a 6-4 win from Nino Ehrenschneider and Will Cooksey in the first doubles match against Hopper and Powell. Chaitanya Aduru and Sutanto trailed 4-3 in the third doubles match to Fu and Jonny Yaffe when play was stopped after the point was clinched.
In the other singles matches, Hopper (ranked first in the Central Region) fell to Nick Beaty 7-6, 6-2 at no. 1 singles, Vishwa Aduru suffered a 6-0, 6-1 setback to Ehrenschneider (ranked 102nd among DI players) at no. 2 singles, Cooksey bested Shah 6-1, 7-6 at third singles., Hanchaikul defeated Sutanto 6-3, 6-3 at fourth singles and Yaffe topped Powell 6-3, 6-4 in the sixth singles match.
Michigan improved to 17-2 following the win.
The Spartans will wrap-up their 2022 regular season next weekend, traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to face 22nd-ranked Carnegie Mellon at 2:30 p.m.
