Case Western Reserve University sophomore George Kosseifi secured a three-set win in the second singles match to clinch a 4-3 win for the fifth-ranked Spartans on the road against 21st-ranked Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday in Pittsburgh.

Kosseifi, ranked 16th in the Central Region, won his first set 6-4 against Carnegie Mellon's Raghav Jangbahadur, ranked ninth in the Atlantic South, but dropped the second set 4-6, leading to a decisive third set. With the other matches completed and the team score knotted at 3-3, the two players split the first four games, but Kosseifi followed with wins in each of the next four games to win the match and lock in the team victory for CWRU.

Saturday's match was the regular season finale for the Spartans, who will head into next weekend's conference championships with a 22-5 overall record and winners of 15 of their last 16 matches. The Tartans dropped to 9-8 with the loss.

CWRU fell behind early after dropping a pair of doubles matches to begin the day. First-years Jon Totorica and Leon Chen, ranked 10th in the region, suffered a 6-4 setback to the Tartans' fifth-ranked duo of Jangbahadur and Brendan Hendrata, and shortly thereafter, senior Ajay Mahenthiran and junior Rohan Bhat fell to Alex Feies and Daniel Kong 6-4 in the third doubles match.

The second doubles contest between sixth-ranked junior Anmay Devaraj and senior Casey Hishinuma and Akshay Joshi and Takeshi Koey was left unfinished with the Spartans' pairing leading 4-3.

Down 1-0, Bhat evened the score for the Spartans with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Braden Chavez in the sixth singles match. Carnegie Mellon regained the lead with wins in the next two matches to finish as Mahenthiran, ranked eighth in the region, fell to regionally second-ranked Feies 6-4, 6-4 in the first singles match and Koey bested Hishinuma 6-3, 6-2 at fifth singles. Junior Matthew Plunkett responded with a 6-4, 6-4 win at fourth singles over Kong, and Devaraj evened the team score with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Hendrata, setting up Kosseifi's clinching point in the second singles match.

The Spartans will now turn their attention to the postseason, starting with the 2025 University Athletic Association Championships in Altamonte Springs, Florida from April 25-27. Seedings and matchups will be announced next week.

Spartan Notes

• This was the third time this season the Spartans have won a match after dropping the doubles point. CWRU previously won matches after trailing 1-0 against ninth-ranked Swarthmore on February 21 and against 16th-ranked Kenyon on March 12. 

• The Spartans have won the last eight matchups against the Tartans going back to the 2019 season. This was CWRU's second win of the year against Carnegie Mellon, including a 5-2 win at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club in February.

• CWRU stands at 227-78 in singles matches and 96-46 in doubles play this season.