The No. 14 Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team dropped a tough match against No. 6 University of Chicago on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the 2016 ITA Division III National Team Indoor Championship.
After falling behind 0-1 after the No. 2 doubles match, the Spartans tied up the contest with an 8-6 win by juniors Phil Gruber and James Fojtasek at No. 3 doubles over Gordon Zhang and Sven Kranz after winning two straight sets to close the game. A win by Nicolas Chua and David Liu at first doubles over CWRU's CJ Krimbill and Louis Stuerke, 8-6, gave the Maroons a 2-1 edge after doubles.
The Maroons then took a 3-1 lead after a win at No. 5 singles, but the Spartans pulled back within one (3-2) after Krimbill grabbed a 6-1, 6-4 win over Chicago's Nicholas Chua at No. 1 singles. The Maroons pulled back ahead to take a 4-2 lead being victorious at No. 3 singles.
To clinch the victory for the Maroons, Peter Leung defeated Stuerke 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 at No. 4 singles and Chicago would win out the remainder of the singles matches.
CWRU will return to action Sunday, February 21 at 9:00 a.m. to conclude competition at the championships where they are set to play seventh-seeded and nationally 11th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University at the Cleveland Racquet Club in the third-place match.
Carnegie Mellon opened tournament play with a win over No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges to move to the semifinals of the ITA Championships. Saturday afternoon, the Tartans suffered a 6-3 loss against No. 3 Emory University. CMU is now 5-3 overall this season. In tournament play so far this weekend, the No. 1 doubles team of Daniel Levine and Vayum Arora have yet to be defeated.
Live stats and video broadcast will be available for the match against CMU.
