From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The 25th-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team picked up a pair of wins at the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday, defeating the University of Rochester 9-0 and topping 35th-ranked Hobart College 8-1.
The Spartans have now won three-straight matches to improve to 6-4 overall for the season.
In the early match against Rochester, the Spartans' third doubles team of sophomores Sam Concannon and Zach Hennessey got the team off to a quick start with an 8-0 win over Mattias Hartveit and Damani Eubanks. Senior James Fojtasek and Matthew Chen followed with an 8-1 win over Masaru Fujimaki and Peter Huang in the first singles match, and sophomore Anthony Kanam and freshman Neil Mabee wrapped up the doubles sweep with an 8-2 victory in the second match over Tanmay Thakkar and Sahaj Somani.
Case Western Reserve's success carried over into singles play, where Concannon extended the team's lead to 4-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Huang in the fifth match, and Chen clinched the win with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Jun Yuminaga at no. 2 singles. Adding on to the team victory were junior Rob Stroup with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Yifan Shen in the fourth match, Kanam with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph at no. 3 singles over Thakkar, and Fojtasek with a 7-5, 6-1 victory against Fujimaki at no. 1 singles. Sophomore Siddharth Rajupet completed the sweep in the match with a three-set win over Somani at sixth singles, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 10-6.
Rochester dropped to 2-6 on the year with the loss.
The Spartans would sweep their doubles matches in the late match as well. Kanam and Concannon gave CWRU the early lead with an 8-2 win over Jonathan Atwater and Walker Anderson in the second match, and Hennessey and Mabee followed with an 8-5 win over Harry Nichols and David Reinharz at third doubles. In the first doubles match, Fojtasek and Chen secured the doubles sweep with an 8-6 win over Alan Dubrovsky and Jonah Salita.
Stroup would give the Spartans a 4-0 lead with a 6-4, 6-0 win at fifth singles over Nichols, and Chen clinched the team victory for CWRU with a 6-4, 6-1 win at no. 2 singles over Atwater. Hobart would get a point at third singles, with Salita defeating Kanam in three sets, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, but CWRU responded with wins from Concannon at fourth singles, 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 over Anderson, Rajupet at sixth singles, 7-5, 2-6, 10-4 over Joe Mallon, and Fojtasek at first singles, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 10-8 over Dubrovsky.
The loss was the first of the season for the Statesmen, who fell to 1-1 on the campaign following the setback.