Sophomore Hannah Kassaie made history for the Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team on the first day of the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Singles Championship at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, by reaching the quarterfinals of the draw with two wins.
Kassaie, seeded fifth in the 32-player singles draw, is the first member of the CWRU women's tennis team to reach the quarterfinals of the singles bracket in program history, besting Madeleine Paolucci's run to the round of 16 in 2019.
Kassaie cruised to a straight set first round win over Katherine Orgielewicz of Williams, 6-1, 6-1. She won the first five games in the first set to take a 5-0 lead and clinched the set with a win in the seventh game. The players split the first two games of the second set, before Kassaie won five straight to win the match.
She advanced to quarterfinals after her second round opponent, Audrey Yoon of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, withdrew from the tournament. Kassaie, who improved to 21-2 in singles play this season, will face top-seeded Olivia Soffer of Babson in the quarterfinal on Saturday at 9 a.m. She has already secured All-America honors in singles play for the second straight season by winning her first match of the tournament.
Later in the day, Kassaie and sophomore Lily McCloskey, seeded second in the 16-team draw of the Doubles Championship, were upset by unseeded Brooke Despriet and Katherine Petty of Sewanee in the first round, 4-6, 4-6. In both sets, the Spartans were down early and unable to recover. The Tigers went up 4-0 in the first set before Kassaie and McCloskey won four of the next five games to trail 4-5. However, Despriet and Petty broke the CWRU serve to win the set in the 10th game. In the second set, the Spartans trailed 5-0 before winning the next four games to pull within one. Sewanee again broke serve, clinching the match to advance to the quarterfinals.
Kassaie and McCloskey ended the season with a doubles record of 21-6. The duo will receive All-America honors for doubles play by virtue of the top four seed.
The NCAA Championships continue on Saturday with the quarterfinals of both the singles and doubles championships.
