The fifth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team began its postseason with a 5-0 win over 56th-ranked Whitman College in the second round of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship at the Carlton Courts in Cleveland on Saturday morning.
The Spartans, who have now won five straight matches and 19 of their last 20, improved to 26-5 overall and will advance to the third round on Sunday against either 13th-ranked Kenyon College or 16th-ranked Haverford College, which will play later on Saturday. The Blues saw their six-match winning streak come to a close and ended their campaign with an 18-13 overall record.
CWRU was able to secure the doubles point with wins in the second and third matches. Junior Rohan Bhat and senior Ajay Mahenthiran were the first to finish, defeating Lucas Huang and Cameron Yang 6-2 at no. 3 doubles. Minutes later, first-years Leon Chen and Jon Totorica, ranked 25th in Division III, added a 6-2 win over Diego Guzman and Charles Rush to put the Spartans ahead 1-0.
Senior Casey Hishinuma and junior Anmay Devaraj led 5-3 over Noah Baker and Alexander Stage when doubles play was halted.
Junior Matthew Plunkett increased the CWRU lead to 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Artem Manov in the fourth doubles contest, and Devaraj, ranked 46th in Division III, defeated Huang 6-0, 6-3 in the third doubles match to put the Spartans a win away from clinching. Mahenthiran and Hishinuma went on to win each of their singles matches simultaneously to lock in the win for CWRU, with Mahenthiran, ranked 14th in Division III, defeating Stage 6-3, 6-4 at no. 1 singles and Hishinuma besting Braeden Thomas 6-3, 6-2 in the fifth singles match.
When play was stopped, sophomore George Kosseifi led 5-0 in the second set after dropping the first 7-5 to Yang in the second singles match, and sophomore Santiago Salazar Garza led 6-4, 6-2 over Alejandro Raffo in the sixth singles match.
Sunday's third-round match is scheduled for a noon start at the Carlton Courts. Fans can follow the action with live results at https://ioncourt.com/leagues/2025-ncaa-diii-mens-regional-at-cleveland.
Spartan Notes
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CWRU, making its eighth NCAA Championship appearance, improved to 20-6 all-time in tournament play. Whitman, which made its 17th appearance, now stands at 7-18 in NCAA tournament matches.
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The Spartans improved to 6-0 all-time in NCAA Tournament matches at the Carlton Courts.
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CWRU stands at 3-0 all-time against Whitman. This was the first meeting between the two teams since the 2017 Stag Hen Invitational.
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With his singles win on Saturday, Hishinuma is now tied with former Spartan Anthony Kanam (2016-22) for the second-most singles wins in program history. He stands at 90-23 all-time in singles play. Mahenthiran improved to 87-26 all-time in singles matches, the fourth-most singles wins in program history.
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Plunkett has won 14 consecutive singles matches and improved to 22-5 overall this season.
