The fourth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team placed fourth at the 2025 ITA Division III National Men's Team Indoor Championship following a 4-2 loss to fifth-ranked Denison University in the third-place match at InnerCity Tennis in Minneapolis.

The Spartans, seeded third in the draw, fell to 7-4 on the season and 7-2 against Division III opponents. The fourth-seeded Big Red improved to 3-1 in dual matches.

For the third time this weekend, CWRU dropped the doubles point, winning one of the three matches. Playing the second-ranked doubles pairing in Division III in Ethan Green and Kael Shah, junior Anmay Devaraj and senior Casey Hishinuma fell 1-6 at first doubles. At third doubles, the partnership of sophomore Trey Lambright and junior Rohan Bhat defeated Andreas Chapides and Nick Meyers 6-3. With the doubles point coming down to the second matchup, junior Justin Prochnow and sophomore Derek Shiffer fell 5-6 to Colin Gramley and Jacob Patterson.

Hishinuma won the fifth singles matchup to even the score, defeating Chapides 6-1, 6-4. Patterson, ranked 38th in Division III in singles play, put the Big Red ahead by taking down sophomore George Kosseifi 3-6, 3-6 at second singles. Case Western Reserve again tied the score, earning a win at sixth singles from sophomore Santiago Salazar Garza 6-4, 7-5 over Mason Conlin.

However, Denison would win the next two points to take the match. At fourth singles, Meyers defeated junior Matthew Plunkett 3-6, 5-7, and at third singles, Devaraj took Shah, ranked sixth in the country, to three sets, before ultimately falling 6-3, 2-6, 2-6.

When the match concluded, senior Ajay Mahenthiran, the 34th-ranked singles player in the country, was trailing Green, the second ranked singles player in D3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-5.

The Spartans will take two weeks off from intercollegiate competition before embarking on their Spring Break trip to Orlando, Florida. The trip begins on Sunday, March 9 when the team plays Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wittenberg at 8:30 a.m. and Piedmont at 12 p.m.

Spartan Notes

• The Spartans have had recent success at the ITA National Indoor Championship, winning the tournament in 2022 and 2023 and placing third in 2024
• The loss against Denison was the first for Case Western Reserve since 2011, breaking a streak of seven consecutive victories over the Big Red, including a win in the round of 16 of the 2023 NCAA Championship