Junior Hannah Kassaie set a pair of program records as the 13th-ranked Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team advanced to the University Athletic Association Championship Semifinal Round for the second time in program history with a 5-3 win in the Quarterfinal Round over 15th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University on Friday morning at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
The fourth-seeded Spartans will advance to the semifinals to face top-seeded Chicago on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., and the fifth-seeded Tartans will match up against eighth-seeded Rochester in the consolation semifinals. The Maroons bested the Yellowjackets 5-0 earlier in the day to punch their ticket to the second round.
Kassaie won the 66th singles match of her career with a 6-2, 6-4, victory over Sarah Yang at first singles, breaking a tie with former Spartan Surya Khadilkar for the most singles victories in program history. For her career, she has a 66-10 (.868) record in singles matches, including a 36-4 (.900) record at first singles. She currently has the best career singles winning percentage in program history. This season, Kassaie is 22-4 (.846) in singles matches, just two wins away from tying her single-season program record of 24 victories.
Kassaie and the Spartans started the match with a win at first doubles, the team's 23rd consecutive first doubles victory in a dual match. Kassaie and junior Lily McCloskey defeated Zoe Angell and Danna Taylor 8-5 to give the team a 1-0 lead.
With the win at first doubles, Kassaie broke a five-way tie for the most single-season doubles wins in program history, earning her 24th doubles victory during the 2023-24 campaign. She is 24-1 in doubles play this season, with 23 of those wins coming with McCloskey, who is now tied for second in single-season doubles wins in program history.
Junior Radha Patel and sophomore Katalina Wang followed with an 8-5 victory at second doubles over Anna Chow and Divya Venkatarama to secure an advantage heading into singles play. The thrilling third doubles match between Case Western Reserve's senior Pallavi Goculdas and junior Anna Kan and Carnegie Mellon's Anika Joshi and Sarah Yang ended with an 8-7 (13-11) victory for the Tartans following 67 minutes of play.
CWRU reclaimed a two-point lead with a victory at sixth singles. Sophomore Asha Shukla defeated Chow, 6-4, 6-2, to put the Spartans ahead 3-1 in the match. The Tartans cut their deficit back to one with a 6-2, 6-1, win at fifth singles, and tied the score at three with a 6-2, 6-2, victory at third singles. However, those would be the last two points of the day for Carnegie Mellon.
Kassaie gave the Spartans the lead again and put them a point from winning the match with her record-breaking singles win. Kan secured the clinching point at fourth singles with a 7-5, 6-3, win over Angell to send the team to the semifinals.
With the victory, CWRU improved to 14-4 on the season and 1-0 in UAA matches. The Tartans dropped to 11-6 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
When the match was decided, McCloskey led 7-6 (9-7), 5-0 at second singles over Taylor.
