Several Case Western Reserve University men's tennis players remained in the hunt for a 2025 ITA Central Region Championship after the second day of competition on Saturday in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with junior George Kosseifi and sophomore Jon Totorica reaching the quarterfinals of the singles draw, and graduate student Bryce Ware and junior Trey Lambright playing their way into the semifinals of the doubles draw.

In addition, CWRU sent a contingent of competitors to the Big Red Invitational at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, on Saturday, going a combined 25-14 between singles and doubles matches.

ITA Fall Central Region Championship

• In the singles draw, Kosseifi, the ninth-seeded player, topped Denison's Anthony Payiavlas, seeded 17th, 6-4, 6-1 in the round of 32 before advancing to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-6 (3) upset over fourth-seeded Eric Kuo of WashU in the next round. He will take on ninth-seeded Maximo Llamas Castellanos of Kenyon in the quarterfinals on Sunday at 11:30 AM, with the winner advancing to the semifinals later in the day against the victor of the quarterfinal match between top-seeded Kael Shah and fourth-seeded Christiam Liew.

• On the other half of the singles draw, Totorica, seeded 17th, was tied 4-4 in his round of 32 match with ninth-seeded Shrikeshav Murugesan of Chicago before his opponent was forced to retire due to injury. He went on to face seventh-seeded Jacob Patterson of Denison in the round of 16 and claimed a three-set win, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals. Totorica will face ninth-ranked Alejandro Gonzalez of Kenyon in the quarterfinals at 11:30 AM on Sunday, with the winner advancing to face either second-seeded Ethan Greene of Denison or fifth-seeded Paulo Pocasangre of Kenyon.

• Ware and Lambright put themselves a win away from earning a ticket to the ITA Cup after winning two more matches on Saturday. The duo, seeded ninth in the draw, began the day with a big upset over the tournament's top-seeded pair, besting Denison's Ethan Green and Kael Shah 8-5 in the round of 16. Ware and Lambright followed that with an 8-2 win against ninth-seeded Rafael Run and Augusto Ghidini of Wabash in the quarterfinals. The two will take on Chicago's Albert Mackey and Heyang Li in the semifinals on Sunday at 9:00 a.m., with the winning team advancing to face either fourth-seeded Shrikeshav Murugesan and Christian Liew or ninth-seeded Markus Ekstrand and Alexander Ekstrand, both of Chicago.

• In other doubles action, sophomores Leon Chen and Totorica, seeded second in the draw, claimed an 8-1 win over ninth-seeded Jay Dixit and Stylianos Papamichael of Kenyon in the round of 16 before dropping an 8-4 decision to Ekstrand and Ekstrand in the quarterfinals.

• The seventh-seeded pair of seniors Anmay Devaraj and Rohan Bhat saw their run in the consolation draw come to an end in the round of 16, losing 8-2 to Denison's Jacob Patterson and Arya Ganapathy Kallambella, seeded ninth. 

• In the singles draw, Devaraj, seeded 17th overall, pulled off an upset in the round of 32 with a 6-3, 6-1 win against ninth-seeded Finley Buelte of DePauw, before falling to top-seeded Kael Shah of Denison 6-2, 6-3 in the round of 16.

• Senior Matthew Plunkett, the eighth-seeded player, bested 17th-seeded Kristian Janci of Allegheny 6-3, 7-6 (1) in the round of 32 but saw his tournament run come to an end with a 7-5, 6-4 loss against ninth-seeded Liew in the round of 16.

• Ninth-seeded Santiago Salazar Garza claimed a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over DePauw's Paul Castleman in the round of 32. He went on to fall 7-6 (0), 6-3 against second-seeded Ethan Green of Denison in the round of 16 to close out his weekend.

• Senior JT Bilski was the only Spartan to see his run in the singles draw end in the round of 32, falling 6-3, 6-1 to ninth-seeded Colin Scruggs of WashU.

Big Red Invitational

• In action for the Spartans at the Big Red Invitational were seniors Josh Davydov and Justin Prochnow, junior Derek Shiffer, sophomores Rohit Jain, Konrad Kwiatkowski, Rowan Matorin, and Luke Saylor, and first-years Benjamin Fernandez, Shay Gupta, Ethan Jacob, Xander Jhaveri, Marko McRae, Glen Ngo, and Nikhil Ramani.

• CWRU players went 20-8 (.714) in singles matches and 5-6 (.455) in doubles contests on Saturday in Granville. 

• Spartans to go 2-0 in singles action included Davydov, Gupta, Jain, Jhaveri, Ngo, Prochnow, Ramani, and Shiffer.

• Earning doubles wins for the Spartans at the event were McRae and Kwiatkowski, who bested Denison's Balraj Idnani and Ishwar Idnani 6-4, Saylor and Jain, who defeated Oberlin's Sebastien Naginski and Shawn Lisann 6-2, Ngo and Fernandez, who secured a 6-3 win against Otterbein's Neil Reddy and Halen Hamstead, Matorin and Prochnow, who claimed a 6-1 win over Baldwin Wallace's Caleb Goff and Sam Dalessandro, and Jacob and Jain, who picked up a 6-2 triumph against Denison's Idnani and Idnani.

Spartan Notes

• CWRU improved to 118-49 (.707) in singles play and 46-26 (.639) in doubles matches during the fall season following play on Saturday.

• Ware and Lambright improved to 5-0 together in doubles play this season. Lambright has won all eight of his doubles matches during the fall.

• CWRU is one of three teams with multiple singles players left in the ITA draw, along with Kenyon (three) and Denison (two). 

Up Next

Play will continue at the ITA Championship on Sunday morning with the semifinals and championship of the doubles draw and the quarterfinals and semifinals of the singles draw.