After falling behind 3-0 after doubles play, a resilient Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked second in Division III, came thundering back to win five-straight singles matches and defeat the 39th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the round of 16 of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship at the Carlton Courts in Cleveland, Ohio.
With Sunday's third round win, the Spartans will advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Championship for the second-straight season and the third time in program history. CWRU will face sixth-ranked Williams on May 23 at the USTA Campus in Orlando, Florida in the quarterfinal round.
CWRU improved to 23-4 overall following Sunday's victory, setting a new program record for wins in a year. Wisconsin-Whitewater concluded its campaign with a 22-3 record.
First-year Ansh Shah provided the clinching victory for the Spartans with a 6-4, 6-1 win at third singles over Rory Calabria, capping off a stunning comeback for CWRU. He followed for other CWRU players who helped the team dig out of the 3-0 hole with a dominating singles performance. First-year Casey Hishinuma set the tone with a 6-2, 6-2 win at sixth singles against Ryan Mitchell, and sophomore Vishwa Aduru added a 6-1, 6-1 win at second singles over Cole Lindwall to pull the Spartan back within a match, 3-2. Moments later, senior Chaitanya Aduru evened the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Niclas Goltz at fourth singles, and junior James Hopper provided CWRU with its first lead of the game with a 6-3, 6-3 win at first singles against John Zakowski, setting the stage for Shah's clinching victory.
At the time play was stopped, graduate student Jonathan Powell led 7-5, 3-0 over Brendan Pietila at fifth singles.
The Spartans came back after uncharacteristically poor results in doubles action. At second doubles, Vishwa Aduru and sophomore Sahil Dayal dropped an 8-3 decision to Calabria and Lindwall. The other two matches each went into a tie breaker, but CWRU came out on the short end of each, with Hopper and Powell falling 8-7 (3) to Zakowski and Alex Gray, and junior Michael Sutanto and Chaitanya Aduru losing 8-7 (3) to Mitchell and Goltz.
However, CWRU's play at singles allowed the team to pull out the win and keep the team's quest for a national championship alive.
More information on the NCAA Team Championships in Orlando, including match times, will be posted to athletics.case.edu as it is made available this week.
