From University of Chicago Athletics

The University of Chicago men's tennis team began action at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship with a 6-3 victory over Case Western Reserve University on Friday.

The No. 13-ranked Maroons improved to 15-4 and the No. 12-ranked Spartans fell to 15-10.

UChicago entered the competition as the No. 5 seed while Case came in as the No. 4 seed. In their previous meeting in February, the Spartans edged the Maroons 5-4.

After each side handily won one doubles match each, the No. 3 doubles contest was a tight affair all the way through. The Maroon freshman duo of Nicolas Chua and David Liu pulled out the key win 8-6 to give their team a 2-1 lead heading into singles.

Both sides won a pair of straight-set matches in singles, with Case winning at No. 1 and No. 2 and UChicago taking No. 4 with freshman Peter Leung and No. 6 with Liu. The team match would be decided in the third sets at the No. 3 and No. 5 spots. Senior Deepak Sabadacame through with the clincher at No. 3 by scores of 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Freshman Luke Tsai also won his three-set match at No. 5 with scores of 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

UChicago next opponent will be No. 1-seed Emory University at 2:00 PM (ET) on Saturday.

"This is a win we've been working towards all season," Head Coach Jay Tee said. "Case has had our number the last five years so we knew it was going to be a battle, which it was. We had our share of heartbreak in those 4-5 losses this year, but without them, I'm not sure we pull this one out. We played our best under pressure and that was no coincidence. It was a team effort but it was huge for Deepak to clinch that third set for the team. We always talk about consistency in our effort from each man and we did that today, even in the matches we didn't win. We are going to enjoy this one for the rest of the afternoon and then turn our focus to a talented Emory team tomorrow."