The fourth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision to second-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday morning in the semifinal round of the 2025 ITA Division III National Men's Team Indoor Championship held at the Swanson Tennis Center on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus University in Saint Peter, Minnesota.

The Spartans, seeded third in the draw, fell to 7-3 on the season and suffered their first loss against a Division III opponent, dropping to 7-1 in those contests. The Stags, seeded second, improved to 4-2 overall and 3-0 against D3 competition.

The Spartans will next play the loser of the semifinal match between top-ranked Chicago and fifth-ranked Denison in the third-place match on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET.

CWRU dropped the doubles point, losing at second and third doubles. Sophomores Santiago Salazar Garza and Derek Shiffer fell 4-6 to Advik Mareedu and Josh Kim, the 23rd-ranked doubles pair in Division III. At third doubles, sophomores George Kosseifi and Trey Lambright battled Matthew Robinson and Warren Pham, the 10th-ranked partnership in the country, but the Spartans fell 5-7.

With the point decided, the first doubles pairing of junior Anmay Devaraj and senior Casey Hishinuma pulled an upset, defeating Caleb Settles and Brandon Vu, the ninth-ranked national duo, in a tiebreaker. CWRU prevailed by a score of 7-6 (7-4).

With CWRU needing four singles wins for the second consecutive match, Hishinuma cruised to a 6-0 win in the first set of the fifth singles match over Settles and won the point with a 6-4 second set victory. The Stags took their next points at first singles, with senior Ajay Mahenthiran falling to Mareedu 4-6, 3-6, and third singles, with Devaraj dropping a 0-6, 4-6 decision to Robinson. CMS clinched the match at sixth singles as Kim bested Salazar Garza 6-4, 6-2.

Kosseifi at second singles won his match over Tarm Rojanasoonthon 6-3, 7-6 (10-8), prevailing in consecutive sets in a thrilling tiebreaker. At fourth singles, junior Matthew Plunkett won the first set 6-2 but lost the second set 5-7 and fell in a third set tiebreaker 6-10.

Fans can follow the action all weekend with live scoring at https://ioncourt.com/leagues/2025-ita-diii-mens-team-indoors and video at https://www.youtube.com/@GustavusAthletics/streams

Spartan Notes

• CWRU dropped to 2-3 against CMS since 2013 after winning the last two contests at the ITA National Championships. Of the five meetings, four have come in the tournament
• The Spartans have had recent success at the ITA National Indoor Championship, winning the tournament in 2022 and 2023 and placing third in 2024
• Entering play, the Stags had two nationally-ranked singles players in their lineup in Mareedu (first) and Pham (14th). For CWRU, Mahenthiran entered play ranked 34th in Division III