From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked 21st in Division III, bounced back from a loss on Thursday with an 8-1 win over New York University on Friday in the consolation draw of the 2018 University Athletic Association Championships at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
With the win, the Spartans will advance to the fifth-place match at the UAA Championships on Saturday to face 14th-ranked Brandeis University. CWRU improved to 16-10 overall on the season with the win, while NYU dropped to 5-9 with the loss and will face the University of Rochester in the seventh-place match on Saturday.
On Friday afternoon, freshman Matthew Chen and sophomore Zach Hennessey made quick work of NYU's Joshua Piatos and Vishal Walia at third doubles, 8-0, their second shutout win in as many matches at the conference championships. At second doubles, freshmen Jonathan Powell and Neil Mabee claimed an 8-4 win over Teoh Benedict and Michael Li to extend the Spartans' lead to 2-0. Senior James Fojtasek and sophomore Anthony Kanam completed the Spartans' sweep of doubles play with an 8-4 win at no. 1 doubles over Umberto Setter and Zeb Zheng.
In singles play, Powell earned a 6-1, 6-3 win over Stefan Rodic in the fifth match, improving to 6-0 in singles play this year and putting the Spartans ahead 4-0 in the match. NYU's Rahul Das would put the Violets on the board with a 6-2, 6-3 win at second singles over Chen, but sophomore Siddharth Rajupet locked up the team victory with a 6-2, 6-3 win at sixth singles over Zheng.
Sophomore Sam Concannon added a 6-4, 6-4 win over Li at fourth singles, and Fojtasek defeated Setter 6-3, 6-1 at first singles, putting the Spartans ahead 7-1. Rounding out the victory as Kanam at third singles with a 6-1, 6-3.
CWRU is scheduled to wrap-up play at the UAA Championships on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. against Brandeis. The Judges earned their way into the fifth-place match with a win over Rochester on Friday during their consolation match, improving to 14-4 on the year. Brandeis' lineup features the Northeast Region's 23rd-ranked singles player in David Aizenberg, and the third-ranked doubles pairing of Aizenberg and Anupreeth Coramutla.
This will be the second-straight season that the Spartans and the Judges have met in the UAA fifth-place match, after Brandeis bested CWRU 5-4 in 2017.