The third-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team began its conference title defense with a 5-0 win over the University of Rochester in the quarterfinals of the University Athletic Association Championship Tournament at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Spring, Florida on Thursday morning.

The Spartans, seeded second overall in the tournament, improved to 24-4 with the win, its second of the year against the Yellowjackets. Rochester dropped to 9-5 with the setback.

CWRU will now turn its attention toward the UAA Semifinals on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in Altamonte Springs. CWRU will face third-seeded and fourth-ranked Emory, which bested NYU 5-1 in their quarterfinal match on Thursday.

CWRU set the tone for the match at doubles play where the team swept all three matches. The Spartans' second doubles pairing of sophomore Anmay Devaraj and senior Sahil Dayal claimed the first win of the day with an 8-3 triumph over Krish Vennam and Surya Rajamani. Senior Vishwa Aduru and graduate student Diego Maza ranked second among Division III doubles teams, followed with an 8-4 win over Kai Yuminaga and Ethan Samora at first doubles, and senior Daniel French and graduate student Michael Sutanto completed the sweep with an 8-4 win against David Riccio and Kavin Shukla at third doubles.

In singles play, Maza put the Spartans ahead 4-0 with a 6-0, 6-1 win against Rahu Ravi in the sixth singles match and Sutanto clinched the victory for CWRU with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Shukla at third singles.

When play was stopped due to decision, the Spartans were up a set on each of the remaining four singles courts. At first singles, junior Ajay Mahenthiran won a first set tiebreaker over Yuminaga, 7-6 (5), 0-1, while Aduru was ahead 6-4, 1-2 against Vennam at second singles. In the fourth singles match, junior Ansh Shah led Keitaro Ogawa 6-3, 3-1, and junior Casey Hishinuma was up 6-3, 3-4 against Samora.

Fans can follow Friday's semifinal match against Emory with live results at https://ioncourt.com/ties/662a6e757d56309d9fb350ea. The Spartans, who will be in search of their third-straight appearance in the UAA Championship match, have won three straight matches against Emory, including a 5-1 win in last year's UAA Championship semifinal.