The top-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team kept its winning ways going on Friday afternoon, beginning its weekend with a 9-0 victory against the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire in Deerfield, Illinois and an 8-1 win over Lake Forest College in Lake Bluff, Illinois.
The Spartans improved to 21-4 overall following the two wins, including a perfect 16-0 mark against Division III opposition.
In the opening match of the day against Wisconsin-Eau Claire, senior James Hopper and sophomore Ansh Shah got the Spartans off to a quick start with an 8-2 win over Demetri Bush and John Foley at no. 2 doubles, while seniors Chris Provenzano and Diego Maza defeated the 11th-ranked team in the Central Region, Hunter Roseth and Kole Kolinski, 8-6 at no. 1 doubles. In the third doubles match, junior Sahil Dayal and senior Michael Sutanto topped Ethan Wurtzel and Colin Chapman 8-4.
Hopper earned a quick 6-0, 6-2 win at first singles against Bush to extend the Spartan lead to 4-0, and junior Vishwa Aduru clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Roseth at second singles. Adding wins were Shah at no. 4 singles, 6-3, 6-3 over Foley, sophomore Casey Hishinuma at no. 6 singles, 6-2, 6-2 over Otto Schluter, sophomore Ajay Mahenthiran at no. 5 singles, 6-2, 7-6 (5) over Kolinski, and Sutanto at no. 3 singles, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 over Richard Griffiths.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire dropped to 8-8 with the loss.
The Spartans also swept the doubles in the second match of the day at Lake Forest with junior Daniel French and Aduru earning an 8-0 win over George Ciuca and Ian Villardi at second doubles, Dayal and junior Yuvraj Narang defeating Eduardo Manuitt and Kyle Lassen 8-6 at third doubles, and Maza and Provenzano winning 8-5 over Oleksyi Vyshyvanyuk and Daniel Tulchinskiy at first doubles.
First-year Rohan Bhat won the first singles match of the contest for the Spartans, defeating Lassen 6-0, 6-1 at the fifth position and, playing near his hometown, first-year and Chicago resident Matthew Plunkett clinched the win with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Villardi at fourth singles. Sophomore Ben Martin added to the lead with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Ciuca at third singles, first-year Anmay Devaraj defeated Tulchinskiy 6-2, 6-3 at second singles, and first-year Justin Prochnow bested Jacob Tilton 6-3, 6-4 at sixth singles.
The Spartans' only loss of the match came at first singles, where Maza fell to Vyshyvanyuk the 25th-ranked player in the Central Region, 6-3, 6-3.
Lake Forest fell to 5-7 following the setback.
Case Western Reserve will be back in action in Illinois tomorrow, facing North Central College at 11:00 a.m. ET and the 36th-ranked University of Wisconsin – Whitewater at 3:00 p.m. ET in Naperville, Illinois.
