The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team continued its run as one of the top programs in Division III, reaching the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Championship for the fifth time in the last six years.
The Spartans finished the season with a 29-9 overall record, tied for the second-most victories in a season in program history. CWRU went 26-8 against all Division III competition, 10-8 against nationally-ranked Division III teams, and 5-5 against teams ranked in the top-10 nationally. The Spartans ended the campaign ranked fifth in Division III and were ranked as high as third during the year, while falling no lower than seventh in the national poll.
The Spartans secured an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship, the team's sixth-straight appearance, and hosted the first three rounds at the Carlton Courts for the fifth consecutive year. After receiving a first-round bye, CWRU bounced back after dropping the doubles point against Ohio Northern in the second round to win all four singles matches that were decided to secure a team win. The Spartans went on to claim a 4-0 win over 15th-ranked Mary Washington in the round of 16, with graduate student Bryce Ware clinching the victory with a win at no. 6 singles.
The Spartans' quarterfinal opponent in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was a familiar one in fourth-ranked Denison, a rematch of the 2025 NCAA Championship match. After the two teams had split a pair of matches earlier in the year, CWRU was able to pull off the 4-3 win in the NCAA Tournament with senior Anmay Devaraj's three-set win at no. 3 singles clinching the contest. CWRU went on to fall to second-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the semifinals the next day, despite winning the doubles point and sophomore Rowan Matorin adding a victory in the fifth singles match.
Following the completion of the team tournament, CWRU junior Santiago Salazar Garza was selected to compete in the singles tournament, while junior Trey Lambright and Ware earned a spot in the doubles draw. All three went on to earn All-America acclaim, as Salazar Garza won his first match of the tournament in the round of 32, while Lambright and Ware, who entered the draw as the third-seeded duo, reached the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The Spartans put together a successful fall season, with junior George Kosseifi reaching the semifinals of the ITA Fall Regional Championship singles draw and Ware and Lambright reaching the semifinals of the doubles draw. However, Kosseifi, who likely would have entered the spring as the team's top singles player, was forced to miss the entire season due to injury, requiring 18th-year Head Coach Todd Wojtkowski to reconfigure the lineup.
The Spartans were undeterred, despite losing one of their top players. After playing at sixth singles most of last season, Salazar Garza stepped up to fill the void, ending the year ranked 19th in DIII and anchoring the singles lineup throughout the season, going 23-14 and collecting a team-high 12 wins at no. 1 singles. At no. 2 singles, senior Matthew Plunkett added an 18-14 overall singles record and was ranked 34th in Division III. Devaraj added a veteran presence at third singles, as did graduate student Ansh Shah (ranked 45th nationally) at fourth singles, who finished the year with a 12-2 singles mark. Rounding out the lineup, Matorin emerged as a consistent force at fifth singles, going 7-1 at the position at 21-5 overall, and Ware added a 5-3 mark at no. 6 singles and 12-7 overall. CWRU went 267-110 (.708) in singles matches during the year, including a 157-57 (.734) record in dual matches.
CWRU players added a 115-66 (.635) record in doubles contests, including a 76-36 (.679) mark in dual contests, winning the doubles point in 28 of its 39 matches. Ware and Lambright ended the year ranked fifth in Division III and were 23-10 overall together, including a 16-8 mark at no. 1 doubles. By the end of the NCAA Tournament, Matorin and sophomore Leon Chen became the team's no. 2 doubles pairing, winning two of their three matches together, all during postseason play. Meanwhile, Devaraj and senior Rohan Bhat added a 16-12 record together, including a 15-8 tally in no. 3 doubles contests.
The Spartans opened their spring campaign with nine consecutive wins, including 7-0 wins in each of the first eight. CWRU went on to beat 11th-ranked Johns Hopkins 5-2 in the quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor Championships, but suffered a 5-2 loss in the semifinals to fourth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. However, the Spartans bounced back, besting then top-ranked Denison 4-3 to secure third place at the tournament.
Other highlight wins during the season for the Spartans included a 4-3 win over ninth-ranked Swarthmore on March 13 in Georgetown, Texas, a 5-2 win at home over 11th-ranked Kenyon, and a 5-2 triumph against fifth-ranked Carnegie Mellon on April 18.
CWRU was the third-seeded team at the UAA Championship in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and opened play at the conference tournament with 4-1 wins over 20th-ranked (and sixth-seeded) Brandeis and fifth-ranked (and second-seeded) Carnegie Mellon, before losing to top-ranked UChicago 4-1 in the championship match. However, CWRU's resume was more than strong enough to earn the team another trip to the NCAA Championship, setting up its run to the semifinals.
In addition to the team's success on the court, the Spartans also received a plethora of individual awards for their academic achievement. Shah received both the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and the NCAA Elite Scholar-Athlete Award (presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at each championship site) during the campaign. Both Salazar Garza and Ware were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Second Team and were joined on the Academic All-District Team by Plunkett and Devaraj. Thirteen CWRU men's tennis players – Bhat, Chen, Devaraj, sophomore Rohit Jain, Kosseifi, sophomore Konrad Kwiatkowski, Lambright, Plunkett, Salazar Garza, sophomore Luke Saylor, Shah, junior Derek Shiffer, and sophomore Jon Totorica – received UAA Spring All-Academic Honors. CWRU was selected as an ITA All-Academic Team, while 20 Spartans – Bhat, Chen, senior Josh Davydov, Devaraj, first-year Shay Gupta, Jain, first-year Xander Jhaveri, Kosseifi, Kwiatkowski, Lambright, first-year Marko McRae, first-year Glen Ngo, Plunkett, first-year Nikhil Ramani, Salazar Garza, Saylor, Shah, Shiffer, Totorica, and Ware – were named ITA Scholar-Athletes.
The Spartans earned the following awards during the 2025-26 season:
The following were the Spartans' wins leaders during the 2025-26 season:
The following Spartans were featured in the final ITA rankings:
