From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team ended its 2016 regular season on a high note, turning aside Baldwin Wallace University 9-0 at the Carlton Courts in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday.
With the win, the Spartans ended the regular season with an overall record of 21-7, one win shy of the program record for victories in a season, set by the 2012-13 team. The loss was just the fourth of the season for Baldwin Wallace, which dropped to 22-4 on the year.
The Spartans swept doubles play for the third-straight match and the 16th time overall this season. Freshman John Benedetto and David Zakhodin were the first to finish, claiming an 8-0 win at third doubles over Dominic Pollifrone and Nathan Katz. Juniors James Fojtasek and Phil Gruber followed with an 8-4 win over Matt Harris and Kevin Fredrick at second doubles, and seniors CJ Krimbill and Louis Stuerke secured the sweep with an 8-2 win over Peter Harris and Doug Ganim at first doubles.
Case Western Reserve went on to win each of the six singles matches, including five in straight sets. At first singles, Krimbill topped Peter Harris 6-2, 6-1, while Fojtasek claimed a 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 win over Ganim at second singles. Freshman Robert Stroup defeated Pollifrone 6-4, 6-0 in the third singles match, with Stuerke claiming a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Katz at fourth singles. Rounding out the sweep, junior Joshua Dughi topped Jake Liebler 6-0, 6-2, while Gruber bested Matt Harris 6-0, 6-0.
The Spartans will now await the announcement of the field for the 2016 NCAA Division III Championships, as the team hopes to receive one of the five Pool C at-large selections to the tournament. The field for the NCAA Division III Championships will be posted to NCAA.com by noon on Monday, May 9th, while the individual selections will be released on Wednesday, May 11th by 7:00 p.m.