The second-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team claimed its second-straight ITA Indoor National Championship with a 5-1 win over seventh-ranked Washington University at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minnesota on Sunday morning.
CWRU is just the third program in the tournament's history to repeat as champions, joining Emory University and Gustavus Adolphus. CWRU has now won 10 straight matches to improve to 10-2 overall on the season. WashU dropped to 4-1 following its first setback of the season.
Senior James Hopper and junior Vishwa Aduru, the top-seeded pairing in Division III, got the Spartans off to a 1-0 lead with an 8-4 win over fifth-ranked Abhi Ramireddy and Phuc Huynh, avenging a loss from the fall. The Bears evened the score at 1-1 with a victory at second doubles, where senior Chris Provenzano and junior Sahil Dayal suffered an 8-5 setback against Gaurav Singh and Scott Yamamoto. However, seniors Diego Maza and Michael Sutanto pulled out an 8-6 win at third doubles against Colin Scruggs and Patricio Garcia Muriel Pasquel to give CWRU a 2-1 advantage heading into singles play.
Hopper added to the Spartans' lead with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Ramireddy at no. 1 singles, and a win from sophomore Ansh Shah at fourth singles, 6-1, 6-3 over Pasquel, put the Spartans just a win away from clinching. Sophomore Casey Hishinuma provided the clinching point with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Scruggs at sixth singles to secure the championship for the Spartans.
At the time play was stopped due to decision, Aduru led Huynh 6-3, 4-3 at second singles and sophomore Ajay Mahenthiran was ahead of John Fakouri 6-2, 5-4 at fifth singles. Sutanto trailed Singh 6-1, 6-5 in the third singles match.
The win concluded a dominating weekend for the Spartans, who also earned a 5-1 win over 10th-ranked Emory in the first round and a 6-3 win over fifth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the semifinals. CWRU is now 4-0 against nationally-ranked Division III teams this year.
Case Western Reserve will be off from competition until March 11 when the Spartans will begin their Spring Break trip, playing 11 matches over a five-day stretch in Orlando, Florida.
