The fourth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team picked up a pair of wins against nationally ranked Division III teams on Wednesday, defeating 26th-ranked Pomona-Pitzer 7-2 in Claremont, California and 37th-ranked Chapman 6-3 in Orange, California later in the day.

The Spartans raised their season record to 12-3 following the two wins. CWRU also raised its record to 5-1 against ranked Division III opponents during the year.

CWRU won the early match over Pomona-Pitzer behind a strong showing in singles matches, sweeping all six in the contest after initially falling behind 2-1 after doubles play. Graduate student Diego Maza evened the team score with a 6-0, 6-0 win at no. 6 singles over John Wehrle and junior Ansh Shah gave the Spartans a 3-2 lead in the match with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Owen Kelley at fourth singles. Graduate student Michael Sutanto put the Spartans a match away from a win with a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the second singles contest over Matthew Feng, and junior Casey Hishinuma provided the clincher with a 6-2, 7-5 win against Rohun Krishnan at fifth singles.

With the match decided, senior Vishwa Aduru added a 6-2, 6-2 win over Eshaan Lumba at no. 1 singles and junior Ajay Mahenthiran claimed a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) win over Sam English at no. 3 singles.

The Spartans were forced to come from behind in the contest after falling in two of the three doubles contests earlier. English and Kelley claimed the first win for the Sagehens with an 8-6 victory over senior Sahil Dayal and sophomore Anmay Devaraj at second doubles. Seniors Daniel French and Yuvraj Narang evened the score with an 8-6 win at third doubles against Neil Chulani and Wehrle, but Feng and Lumba (ranked third in Division III) defeated Aduru and Maza 8-6 at first doubles to give Pomona-Pitzer the 2-1 lead after doubles. However, the Spartans' play in singles made the Sagehens' early lead moot.

Pomona-Pitzer fell to 4-5 on the season with the loss.

CWRU once again fell behind after doubles play in the team's late match at Chapman. Aduru and Maza fell 8-3 at no. 1 doubles to Caleb Wilkins and Ian Jordan (ranked 12th in Division III), and Narang and French were edged out at third doubles by Kameron DeHart and Aram Izmirian 8-7 (5). In the second doubles match, Devaraj and Dayal were able to pull out an 8-7 (1) win over Mac Caldwell and Andy Hess to set the team score at 2-1.

Maza quickly evened the score with a 6-0, 6-1 win at sixth singles against Mason Marks, but Chapman regained the lead with a 6-2, 6-1 win from Wilkins (ranked 11th in Division III) over Aduru in the first singles match. However, the Spartans would win each of the remaining singles matches, as Shah evened the score at 3-3 with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Hess at fourth singles and Sutanto gave the Spartans their first lead of the contest with a 6-2, 6-4 against Lachlan Dickinson at second singles. The clinching victory came from Mahenthiran, who pulled out a 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1 win against Izmirian in the third singles match to give the Spartans the victory. Hishinuma added a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 10-6 win at fifth singles over Matthew Dewey to give CWRU the three-point win.

The loss dropped Chapman to 1-4 for the season.

The Spartans will be off tomorrow before returning to action for the final leg of the team's Spring Break trip at the Stag-Hen Invitational. CWRU will begin play at the event against #17 Southwestern University at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 15 at the Pauley Tennis Complex in Claremont, California. The Spartans will play a second match at 6:00 p.m. ET on Friday, and then conclude play at the Stag-Hen on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET.