The top-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis picked up a pair of wins on Monday in Florida, including one over the third-ranked Division II team. CWRU bested Barry 4-2 and added a 6-1 win over Florida National while losing 6-1 to Keiser, the top-ranked NAIA team.
The Spartans improved to 14-3 overall after the 2-1 day.
CWRU's opening match of the day pitted the Spartans against Barry, which has won the last three NCAA Division II Championships and has appeared in 11 championship matches since 2008. CWRU secured the doubles points with a 6-1 win from senior James Hopper and sophomore Ansh Shah over Alejandro Ibanez Gallego and Arnau Rodriguez at no. 1 doubles and from seniors Diego Maza and Chris Provenzano at no. 2 doubles. Juniors Sahil Dayal and Vishwa Aduru suffered a 6-3 loss to Bastien Rieme and David Rieme at no. 3 doubles.
Barry won the first singles match to be decided, as Rodriguez bested senior Michael Sutanto 6-4, 6-1 at third singles, but Hopper responded with a 7-5, 7-5 win against Ibanez Gallego at no. 1 singles to give CWRU a 2-1 lead. At fifth singles, Adam Lynch bested sophomore Ajay Mahenthiran to even the score at 2-2. At fourth singles, Shah earned a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 win over Tim Buettner to put the Spartans a point away from clinching, and sophomore Casey Hishinuma locked in the team victory with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win against Bastien Rieme at sixth singles.
Barry fell to 8-3 following the loss.
CWRU and Keiser featured a matchup between the winners of this year's Division III and NAIA Indoor National Champions. CWRU swept the doubles matches with a 6-2 win from Provenzano and Sutanto at no. 1 doubles over Heber Santos and Gaston Centero, a 7-5 win from Dayal and Maza over Yassir Kilani and Soufiane El Meshabi at no. 2 doubles, and a 6-2 win from Hopper and Shah over Martin Carrizo and Shaheed Alam at no. 3 doubles. However, Keiser swept the Spartans in singles play to earn the 6-1 team win and improve to 7-3 on the season.
CWRU capped off the day with a 6-1 win against Florida National. The Spartans secured the doubles point with a 6-4 win from first-years Rohan Bhat and Matthew Plunkett at no. 2 doubles against David Da Ayguavives and Luigi Stefanacci, and a 6-2 win from sophomore Pranav Ikkurthy and first-year Justin Prochnow over Jerry Makela and Hamish Lee at no. 3 doubles. The Spartans went on to get singles wins from Bhat at no. 2 singles, junior Daniel French at no. 3 singles, junior Yuvraj Narang at no. 4 singles, Ikkurthy at no. 5 singles, and Prochnow at no. 6 singles. Florida National fell to 1-5 with the loss.
CWRU will continue its spring break trip tomorrow, facing the top-ranked Division II team in Indianapolis at noon and Oneonta State at 6:30 p.m. in Orlando.
