The Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team, ranked 17th in Division III by the ITA, will begin the spring portion of its season on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club in a dual match against the College of Wooster.
The Spartans are looking to continue their success from the fall season and the previous two spring campaigns when the team qualified for the NCAA Championship in back-to-back seasons.
More recently, junior Hannah Kassaie, who is ranked fifth nationally and second in the region for her singles play, became the first player in program history to qualify for the singles draw of the prestigious ITA Cup in the fall after finishing as the runner-up at the ITA Central Region Championship. Kassaie reached the consolation final of the ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia, after completing competition with a 2-1 record, and has qualified for the NCAA Singles Championship twice.
Kassaie and classmate Lily McCloskey, who will enter the spring as the 18th-ranked doubles partnership in the country and fourth-ranked duo in the region, reached the semifinal of the doubles draw of the ITA Central Regional Championship last fall. The pair has qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship the last two seasons. As a singles player, McCloskey is ranked 29th nationally and eighth in the region and is a two-time All-University Athletic Association honoree for her singles play.
Junior Radha Patel rounds out the team's nationally ranked singles players, appearing 46th on the list and 12th in the region. Patel reached the quarterfinal of the singles draw at the regional championship in the fall and earned All-UAA honorable mention for singles play last spring.
After starting the season with Wooster, the Spartans will host #19 Kenyon the following weekend for the first of nine matches against nationally ranked teams during the 2024 season. CWRU will face #11 Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh before hosting regional opponents Otterbein and Oberlin on February 25. During spring break, Case Western Reserve will travel to San Antonio to face 14th-ranked Trinity (Texas), 30th-ranked Skidmore, and fifth-ranked Wesleyan. Before departing for the Lone Star State, the Spartans will face 20th-ranked Denison and Kalamazoo in Granville, Ohio.
The team will travel to Fredericksburg, Virginia, from March 23-25 for the Blue Gray Invite, hosted by the University of Mary Washington. CWRU will take on the 27th-ranked hosts, 25th-ranked Southwestern (Texas), and Gustavus Adolphus during the weekend.
On April 5 and 6, the Spartans return home for Senior Weekend, facing Division II Walsh and UAA foe Rochester while celebrating the team's graduating members. A trip to Chicago ends the regular season with the Spartans facing the second-ranked University of Chicago and North Central on April 19 and 20.
From April 26-28, CWRU will be in Altamonte Springs, Florida, for the UAA Championship. In addition to the Tartans, Maroons, and Yellowjackets, Case Western Reserve could also face sixth-ranked Emory, 16th-ranked WashU, 18th-ranked NYU, or 31st-ranked Brandeis during the three-match tournament. Last season, the Spartans placed sixth in the conference with a 1-2 record.
The Spartans are hoping to qualify for the NCAA Championship for the third consecutive season. The first three rounds of the team competition are scheduled for May 10-12 at sites to be determined with the individual championships and team quarterfinals, semifinals, and final to be played at the Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center in St. Louis later in the month.
