From Case Western Reserve University Athletics

With a program-best finish in any ITA Indoor Team National Championships, the No. 14 Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team finished third overall in the 2016 tournament after defeating No. 11 Carnegie Mellon University 5-4 on Sunday morning.

The Spartans improve to 3-1 overall this season, while the Tartans dropped to a 5-4 mark.

Carnegie Mellon took a 2-1 lead after doubles, with CWRU's only win coming from the first doubles team of seniors CJ Krimbill and Louis Stuerke. Defeating their opponents Vayum Arora and Daniel Levine, Krimbill and Stuerke took the match with a score of 8-2. 

The Spartans quickly tied up the match at 2-2 as Stuerke quickly ended the match with wins of 6-2, 6-4 at No. 4 singles against Carnegie Mellon's Arora. The Spartans took the lead at 3-2 after Krimbill defeated Abhishek Alla at first singles 6-3, 6-1. 

Case Western Reserve continued to pull ahead as junior Kevin Dong was next to finish his match at No. 5 singles. Defeating Kiril Kirkov, Dong won in straight sets both with scores of 6-2 for a Spartan lead 4-2. 

The Tartans would pull back within one (4-3) with a win at No. 2 singles, but freshman Robert Stroup would pull in another victory for the Spartans to secure the win for the team. After dropping the first set 2-6, Stroup rallied back to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-3 of CMU's Kenny Zheng.