The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked second in Division III, began their title defense at the ITA Indoor National Championships on Friday night with a 5-1 win over 10th-ranked Emory University at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minnesota.
The Spartans have now won eight-straight matches, all against Division III opponents, to improve to 8-2 overall on the season. Emory dropped to 3-1 following the loss.
Friday's first-round match pitted the second-seeded Spartans against the seventh-seeded Eagles. CWRU senior James Hopper and junior Vishwa Aduru put CWRU on the board first, winning 8-1 at no. 1 doubles over Andrew Esses and Nolan Shah. Hopper teamed with former Spartan Jonathan Powell to defeat Esses and Shah for the NCAA Doubles Championship last year.
The Spartans extended their lead to 2-0 with a win from seniors Diego Maza and Michael Sutanto at no. 3 doubles, 8-5 over Sam Dean and Dean Kamenev, but Emory got a point back at no. 2 doubles, as Ryan Glanville and Charlie James defeated junior Sahil Dayal and senior Chris Provenzano 8-6.
Hopper extended the team's lead with a 6-0, 6-2 win against Esses in the first singles match, and a 6-0, 6-1 win from sophomore Casey Hishinuma against Emilio Van Cotthem at sixth singles put the Spartans a point away from clinching the team victory. Sophomore Ajay Mahenthiran delivered the clinch for CWRU with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Brandon Cohen in the fifth singles match.
When play was stopped, Aduru led Shah 6-2, 5-2 at second singles and Sutanto was ahead 7-6, 5-2 at third singles. In the fourth singles match, sophomore Ansh Shah was trailing Charlie James 7-5, 5-2.
The Spartans will now turn their attention toward the semifinals on Saturday, where the team will face fifth-ranked and third-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The Stags defeated sixth-seeded and nationally ninth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer 5-3 in their first-round match on Friday. Fans can follow the action with live results at https://ioncourt.com/leagues/ita-diii-national-mens-team-indoor-championship and live video at https://www.youtube.com/@GustavusAthletics/streams.
