The 17th-ranked Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team dropped a thrilling 4-3 decision to 33rd-ranked Brandeis University on Saturday morning in the University Athletic Association Fifth-Place Match at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

The Spartans concluded the regular season with a record of 13-7 and 1-2 in UAA matches, while the Judges ended the season at 11-7 and 2-1 in conference play.

Down one of their top players, CWRU mixed its doubles lineup and nearly prevailed with the doubles point. On the second court, senior Lily McCloskey and sophomore Katie Wong defeated Nancy Zhang and Mandy Reyes 6-4. Brandeis responded with a 7-5 win on the third court to force the decision on the first doubles match. Junior Elsa Syed and senior Anna Kan fought off a loss to Bhakti Parwani and Rebecca Suarez with a point to the tie score at five. The partnerships held serve to force a tiebreaker at 6-6. The Judges prevailed in the extra set 6-3 to give Brandeis a 1-0 lead in the match.

Junior Asha Shukla quickly evened the match score at one with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Zhang at fourth singles. Wong put the Spartans ahead by taking down Charly Saltz 6-0, 6-1 at sixth singles, and Kan gave CWRU a third point by defeating Chahana Budhbhatti 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 at third singles.

The final three singles matches all went to a third set, with Brandeis needing to win all three to prevail. Suarez, ranked 38th nationally, defeated McCloskey, ranked 29th nationally, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 at first singles. Parwani followed with a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 win over graduate student Laurel Utterback at second singles. In the final match at fifth singles, Anastasia Sia won a second-set tiebreaker 7-6 (9-7) and prevailed in the third set 6-2 to clinch the victory for Brandeis.

The UAA Championship was the last scheduled match for the CWRU women's tennis team. The Spartans will know if they are selected to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season on Monday, May 5 when team selections are announced at 12 p.m. on ncaa.org. Selections to the national singles and doubles championship will be announced on Wednesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. on ncaa.com.

Spartan Notes

• CWRU fell to 5-4 against Brandeis since 2011, including losses in their last two matches. The two teams had not played each other since April 25, 2019
• Suarez entered the weekend ranked 14th in the Northeast Region in singles play. McCloskey was seventh in the Central Region and Utterback ranked 10th in the Central Region