Case Western Reserve University junior Santiago Salazar Garza won a singles match during the first day of competition at the NCAA Division III Individual Championship on Saturday in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to secure the first All-America honor of his career, while graduate student Bryce Ware and junior Trey Lambright remained alive with a win in the doubles draw during the day.
By virtue of winning a singles match at the NCAA tournament, Salazar Garza became the third CWRU men's tennis player this year to earn All-America honors, joining Lambright and Ware (who earned All-America honors by being the third-seeded team in the doubles draw). With each of the three claiming all-America honors, the CWRU men's tennis team has now produced 16 individual all-Americans in its history who have totaled 34 honors.
Salazar Garza was able to best Babson's Edward Wang in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, in the round of 32 to begin play in the singles draw. He never trailed in the match, which featured a deuce point in nine of the 18 total games. Salazar Garza was able to win seven of the nine deuce points, including five of six in the second set alone (and three-straight to begin the stanza) to secure the win.
In Salazar Garza's second match of the day, second-seeded Michael Melnikov of Swarthmore was able to break his serve at 2-2 and 5-3 to win the first set. Melnikov then jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set before closing out the round-of-16 victory with another 6-3 win.
Salazar Garza closed out his 2025-26 campaign with an overall record of 23-14 to lead the team in singles victories during the campaign. He stands at 58-25 overall in singles matches during his career.
Later in the day, Ware and Lambright were able to cruise to a straight-set win over Pomona-Pitzer's Drew Goldman and Jayanth Mallampati, winning 6-2, 6-3 in the round of 16. Goldman and Mallampati entered the match unseeded but were ranked fourth nationally.
The pairing improved to 23-9 together this season with the win, the duo's third-consecutive victory.
Ware and Lambright will now turn their attention to the NCAA quarterfinals, where they will face Gustavus Adolphus' Gage Gohl and Tyler Haddorff, who are ranked 12th in Division III and unseeded in the draw. The match is scheduled for Sunday at the Champions Club and will not begin earlier than 1:00 p.m.
Fans can follow the action with live results and live video. The NCAA will also be providing whip-around live video coverage with commentary.
More information on the event is available on the official tournament website.
