The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team continued its stretch of successful seasons in 2023-24, reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Championship for the fourth-straight year and finishing the campaign ranked fourth in the country.
The Spartans ended the season with a 27-6 overall record, marking the second-most wins in a single season in program history, behind only the team's 33 victories during its NCAA Championship campaign in 2022-23. Included in the team's overall record was a 2-1 mark at the University Athletic Association Championship, good for the team's third-straight second-place or better finish at the conference event. The Spartans also went 13-4 against opponents who were nationally ranked at the time of the match during the campaign, and 15 of the team's 27 wins came via a sweep of its opponent.
The Spartans' lineup was strengthened by several players who returned to similar spots in the lineup from where they played during the 2023 NCAA Championship run, including senior Vishwa Aduru (no. 2 singles and no. 1 doubles), graduate student Michael Sutanto (no. 3 singles), junior Ansh Shah (no. 4 singles), junior Casey Hishinuma (no. 5 singles), graduate student Diego Maza (no. 1 doubles), and senior Sahil Dayal (no. 2 doubles). Meanwhile, junior Ajay Mahenthiran, who was named the ITA NCAA Division III Most Improved Player, emerged as one of the top players in the country during the year and took over the top spot in the Spartans' singles lineup (after playing primarily at no. 5 singles last year), while Maza entered the singles lineup in the sixth spot and lost just one match to a Division III opponent in the spring. Seniors Daniel French and Yuvraj Narang each saw significant time in the doubles lineup for the first time in their careers in the spring, while sophomore Anmay Devaraj emerged as one of the team's top doubles players as well.
CWRU received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship field, marking the fourth straight season that the team has qualified and the seventh time overall in program history. The Spartans were also selected to host the first three rounds of the NCAA Division III Championship for the third consecutive campaign. After receiving a first-round bye, the Spartans went on to defeat Illinois Tech 5-0 in the second round and 15th-ranked Johns Hopkins 5-0 in the third round. However, CWRU's run was stopped in the NCAA Quarterfinals, as Bowdoin defeated the Spartans for the second time during the season with a 5-3 victory in St. Louis.
The Spartans sent three players to the NCAA Division III Individual Championships as well, but none of the contingent could advance, with Mahenthiran suffering a loss in the first round of the singles draw, and Aduru and Maza dropping a match in the first round of the doubles draw.
CWRU opened its 2024 spring campaign with five straight wins, including a 4-3 victory over the University of Chicago (the eventual NCAA Champion) in the first round of the ITA Indoor National Championship. It would prove to be the only loss of the season for the Maroons. However, CWRU suffered a 4-3 loss to WashU in the semifinals, before topping Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 4-0 to place third at the event. Hishinuma and Maza (sixth singles) were each named to the All-Tournament team following the event.
The Spartans went on to earn wins over 11th-ranked Sewanee (8-1), 26th-ranked Pomona-Pitzer (7-2), 37th-ranked Chapman (6-3), 17th-ranked Southwestern (7-0), and 27th-ranked Babson (7-0) during their spring break trip to California, with the team's only setback to a Division III squad during the trip coming against Bowdoin at the Stag-Hen Invitational. However, the win over Babson started a season-long 12-match winning streak that stretched into the UAA Championship. CWRU picked up regular season wins over four nationally-ranked opponents, including 28th-ranked Kenyon (7-2), 41st-ranked Rochester (9-0), fifth-ranked Denison (7-2), and 25th-ranked Carnegie Mellon (6-3).
Looking to repeat as conference champions and entering the UAA Championship as the second-seeded team, the Spartans made quick work of Rochester in the first round with a 5-0 win, before topping fourth-ranked Emory 5-2 in the semifinals. However, the Spartans' winning streak came to a close in the conference title match with a 5-3 loss to second-ranked Chicago. Despite the loss, the team's resume was more than strong enough to not only support an at-large bid to the tournament but also the hosting rights for the first three rounds of NCAA play.
CWRU also put together a successful fall campaign, highlighted by the team's performance at the ITA Fall Central Region Championship. Mahenthiran became just the second player in program history to win the singles draw at the event, joining former Spartan James Hopper who claimed a win at the tournament in both 2019 and 2021. Meanwhile, Aduru and Maza won the doubles draw at the event, becoming the third duo in the program's history to win the tournament along with Hopper and Matthew Chen in 2019 and Hopper and Jonathan Powell in 2021.
By winning the draw, Mahenthiran received an All-America honor for the first time in his career, while Aduru and Maza each earned All-America acclaim for doubles for the second straight season.
As a team, the Spartans went 209-73 in singles matches, good for a .741 winning percentage, and 125-54 in doubles play for a .698 winning percentage. Mahenthiran led the team in singles victories with a 24-7 record, while Hishinuma (23-8) and Maza (23-4) also registered 20-win campaigns. Aduru paced the squad in doubles victories, going 33-9, while Maza (31-9), Devaraj (31-8), and Dayal (30-12) also tallied over 30 doubles wins during the year.
Following the season, Dayal was selected as the Central Region's Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award winner, while Mahenthiran was named the region's Most Improved Player (in addition to earning the same national award). Maza (no. 1 doubles and no. 6 singles), Aduru (no. 1 doubles), Mahenthiran (no. 1 singles), Dayal (no. 2 doubles), Devaraj (no. 2 doubles), Hishinuma (no. 5 singles), and Shah (no. 4 singles) each received All-UAA honors following the season. Aduru and Maza finished the year ranked fifth in Division III in doubles, while Mahenthiran (10th) and Hishinuma (46th) were each nationally ranked for singles play.
In addition to the team's success on the court, CWRU had four players – Aduru (first team), Dayal (first team), Mahenthiran (first team), and Shah (second team) – who were named College Sports Communicators Academic All-Americans, more than any other NCAA Divison I, II, III or NAIA program in the country during the year. Dayal also received the NCAA Elite 90 Award for having the highest GPA at the championship site, becoming the first men's tennis player at any NCAA level (Division I, II, or III) to garner the award three times over a career and just the 19th athlete across all NCAA sports and divisions to be crowned a three-time honoree. Fifteen Spartan players received UAA All-Academic honors, including Aduru, sophomore Rohan Bhat, Dayal, Devaraj, French, Hishinuma, Mahenthiran, junior Ben Martin, Maza, Narang, sophomore Matthew Plunkett, sophomore Justin Prochnow, sophomore Jackson Schuetzle, Shah, and Sutanto.
The Spartans earned the following awards during the 2023-24 season:
The following were the Spartans' wins leaders during the 2023-24 season:
The following Spartans were featured in the final ITA rankings:
