From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team advanced to the fifth-place match of the 2017 University Athletic Association Championships with a 9-0 win over the University of Rochester in the consolation semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
With the win, the Spartans improved to 20-5 overall to move within two wins of the program single-season record. Next up for CWRU will be a meeting with 34th-ranked and seventh-seeded Brandeis University, which is 11-7 following a win over 31st-ranked and sixth-seeded New York University in the consolation semifinals on Saturday. This will be the second-straight season the two teams have met in the fifth-place match at the UAA Championships, with the Spartans coming away fom last year's meeting with a 5-4 victory.
Brandeis' lineup features the doubles pairing of Michael Arguello and Ryan Bunis, ranked 11th in the East Region, and Brian Granoff, ranked 24th for singles in the region.
The Spartans' sweep of Rochester on Sunday was the team's seventh 9-0 win of the season.
Picking up wins in doubles play on Saturday against Rochester were freshman Anthony Kanam and sophomore David Zakhodin, 8-0 over Tanmay Thakkar and Ryan Zu at third doubles, sophomore John Benedetto and senior Fred Daum, 8-3 over Masaru Fujimaki and Aaron Mevorach at first doubles, and seniors Phillip Gruber and James Fojtasek, 8-5 over Mattias Hartveit and Sam Leeman at No. 2 doubles.
First to finish in singles play was sophomore Rob Stroup, who defeated Andrew Nunno in straight sets in the third match, 6-2, 6-1. Freshman Sam Concannon would provide the match-clinching win at No. 6 singles, defeating Yifan Shen 6-1, 6-3 to put CWRU on top 5-0.
Adding victories for the Spartans on Saturday were Fojtasek at no. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-4 over Leeman, freshman Siddharth Rajupet at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 1-6, 10-4 over Fujimaki, senior Kevin Dong at No. 4 singles, 6-2, 6-3 over Jun Yuminaga, and senior Josh Dughi, 3-6, 6-0, 10-6 over Thakkar.
Rochester dropped to 9-11 with the loss, and will face NYU in the seventh-place match on Sunday.