In a nearly three-hour match with plenty of momentum swings, the fourth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team fell 4-2 to second-ranked Denison University in the final of the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship on Thursday night at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, California.

The Spartans, who were playing in their fourth national championship match in the last five seasons, finished as the national runner-up for the third time in program history. The team ended the campaign with an overall record of 29-6, the second-most victories in a single season by a CWRU men's tennis team. In another historic season, the Spartans won the University Athletic Association championship for the second time ever and lost to only two Division III schools all year.

The Big Red quickly won the doubles point, earning a 6-1 win at second doubles and 6-2 victory at first doubles to take an early 1-0 lead. For Denison, 16th-ranked Colin Gramley and Jacob Patterson defeated first-years Leon Chen and Jon Totorica on the second court, and the second-ranked pairing of Ethan Green and Kael Shah bested 13th-ranked senior Casey Hishinuma and junior Anmay Devaraj on the first court.

After dropping the doubles point, the Spartans needed four wins out of six matches on the singles courts for the national championship.

Case Western Reserve took back the momentum, winning the first set in five of the six matches. Hishinuma started singles play by taking the opening frame at fifth singles 6-1 over Meyers, and senior Ajay Mahenthiran, ranked 11th nationally in singles play, followed by winning the first set 6-2 over Green, the fourth-ranked singles player in Division III. Sophomore George Kosseifi, ranked 40th in Division III, pulled the first set from nationally third-ranked Shah 7-5 on the second court, and at third singles, 49th-ranked Devaraj fought off 20th-ranked Patterson to win the first set 7-5.

Junior Matthew Plunkett prevailed 7-6 (8-6) in a tiebreaker over Chapides at fourth singles for the fifth victory. However, Anthony Payiavlas broke the sweep for the Big Red, winning the first set 7-5 over sophomore Santiago Salazar Garza at sixth singles.

The match at fifth singles was the first to finish with Hishinuma tying the team score at one by winning the second stanza 6-3 over Meyers. He finished the season with a record of 30-7 in singles matches and ended his career with a mark of 93-24 in singles matches.

Denison responded by forcing decisive third sets on courts one, two, and four with second stanza wins. Green won a back-and-forth 7-5 set at first singles, Chapides followed by taking his set 6-1 at fourth singles, and Shah prevailed 6-3 in his second set at second singles.

CWRU reclaimed its energy when Devaraj gave his team its first lead of the evening, winning the second set 6-1 over Patterson to make the team score 2-1. However, it would be the last victory for Case Western Reserve as the Big Red began to slowly take control.

Payiavlas tied the match score and turned the attention to the three clinching sets with a 6-3 second set win at sixth singles. Both squads needed two wins for the national championship, but Denison led the final set on two of the three courts.

After Plunkett pulled ahead 3-2, Kosseifi started his comeback by breaking and holding serve to trail 2-4. However, the Big Red closed out the match with a 6-2 victory at first singles and 6-3 win at fourth singles, winning the first national championship in team history. Denison ended the season with a record of 28-2.

Mahenthiran ended his career with a singles record of 89-28 and doubles mark of 33-8. The 89 wins rank fourth in program history, and his doubles winning percentage of .805 tied for third-best all-time.

Despite the loss, members of the CWRU men's tennis team will continue their season in California with the individual championships. Hishinuma and Devaraj will compete in the 2025 NCAA Division III Doubles Championship, which begins on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. The duo, seeded third in the 16-pair draw, will face Drew Goldman and Jay Mallampati of Pomona-Pitzer in the opening round.

Spartan Notes

• CWRU, making its eighth NCAA Tournament appearance, fell to 23-7 all-time in tournament play. Case Western Reserve fell to 1-3 in national championship matches, winning the title in 2023 and finishing as the runner-up in 2021 and 2022
• The Spartans won 17 of their 21 matches against nationally ranked teams during the 2024-25 season, including five of nine over teams ranked in the top 10 and a win over top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the national semifinals
• The meeting was the third this season between the Ohio rivals with Denison taking all three matchups
• With his singles victory, Hishinuma matched the single-season program record of 30 wins set by CJ Krimbill in 2015-16. His 93 career wins rank second in Spartan history behind only Krimbill and his 140 wins in both singles and doubles play are the ninth-most ever by a Spartan
• Devaraj, who went 22-9 in singles matches this season, ended the year on a six-match winning streak