The fourth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team came away with two impressive wins on Friday afternoon, defeating Wayne State University (ranked 24th in Division II) 4-3 and the University of Northwestern Ohio 4-1 in Lima, Ohio.

The Spartans improved to 16-4 overall with the two wins on Friday. It marked the team's first-ever win in three tries against Wayne State and their first win since 2021 against Northwestern Ohio.

The Spartans were able to secure the doubles point against Wayne State to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Seniors Yuvraj Narang and Vishwa Aduru defeated Emil Mikkelsen and Joe Steele 6-2 at no. 3 doubles, but the Warriors evened the score with a 6-4 win from Daniel Grey and Dom Spicer over senior Sahil Dayal and sophomore Anmay Devaraj at no. 1 doubles. The doubles point came down to the second match, where senior Daniel French and junior Ansh Shah were able to come away with a 7-5 win over Benjamin Hill and Denali Kitayama to give the Spartans the early lead in the match.

Wayne State evened the score with a 6-1, 6-2 at no. 1 singles from Grey over junior Ajay Mahenthiran, but the Spartans quickly regained the advantage just minutes later with a 6-0, 6-0 win from Shah at fourth singles over Hill, going in front 2-1.

With the Spartans needing to win two of the remaining four singles matches to clinch the team win, each of the remaining contests all went into a third set. First-year Santiago Salazar Garza came from behind at sixth singles to put CWRU a point away from clinching, besting Steele 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Spicer bested graduate student Michael Sutanto 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second singles match to set the score at 3-2, but shortly thereafter, sophomore Matthew Plunkett provided the clincher at third singles with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-2 win over Kitayama. After the match was already decided, first-year George Kosseifi fell to Mikkelsen in the fifth singles match, 4-6, 6-1 6-2.

Wayne State dropped to 8-9 following the loss.

Later in the day, the Spartans handed the NAIA's top team just its second loss of the season with a 4-1 win over the Racers. Devaraj and Aduru notched a 6-3 win over Sergio Conde and Lucas Perez at no. 2 doubles and French and Narang claimed a 6-2 win over Mathieu Strauss and Nils Messin at no. 3 doubles to secure the doubles point for CWRU.

When doubles play was stopped after the point was awarded, Dayal and Sutanto trailed Martin Stanchev and Malik Omarkhanov 6-5 at no. 1 doubles.

Shah turned in his second strong showing of the day at fourth singles, besting Stanchev 6-3, 6-2 to give CWRU a 2-0 lead in the match. Northwestern Ohio got on the board with a 6-3, 6-2 win from Omarkhanov over junior Casey Hishinuma at no. 3 singles, but Salazar Garza bested Messin 6-2, 6-1 at sixth singles to put the Spartans ahead 3-1.

The clinching point came from Aduru at second singles, where he secured the team win for the Spartans with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 win against Strauss.

At the time play was halted due to decision, Mahenthiran and Conde were even in the third set at no. 1 singles, 2-6, 6-2, 6-6, and Devaraj was down a set to Perez at no. 5 singles, 6-3, 6-6.

Northwestern Ohio dropped to 13-2 with the loss.

The Spartans will be back in action next weekend, hosting 26th-ranked Kenyon at 12:00 p.m. and Otterbein at 3:00 p.m. in Cleveland.