From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The top-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team positioned itself just two wins away from the NCAA Division III Championship with a 5-1 win over 13th-ranked Gustavus Adolphus College in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament on Saturday morning at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
The Spartans will have a day off on Sunday before returning to the courts on Monday to face either fourth-ranked Middlebury College or 11th-ranked Bowdoin in the semifinals. Bowdoin held a 4-1 lead over Middlebury in their quarterfinal match when this release was published.
With the win, CWRU improved to 31-4 overall and claimed its 17th consecutive win. The Spartans now stand at 26-0 against Division III opponents this season.
The Gusties' season ended with a 26-11 overall record.
CWRU took the advantage heading into singles play by winning two of the three doubles matches. Senior James Hopper and junior Vishwa Aduru, ranked first in the central region, defeated Nick Aney and Daniel Fouchier (ranked fourth in the region) 8-2 in the first match to put the Spartans on the board, and seniors Diego Maza and Chris Provenzano, ranked ninth in the region, added an 8-2 win at second doubles over Alex Budde and Gage Gohl to extend the lead to 2-0. CWRU's lone doubles setback came in the third contest, where senior Michael Sutanto and sophomore Ansh Shah fell to Marco Siviero and Sourabh Terakanambi 8-6.
With Hopper's win at doubles, he broke his own program record for doubles wins in a season with 38 and moved within one doubles win of former Spartan CJ Krimbill's career record of 123 doubles victories.
Hopper was also the first to finish in singles play, as the region's top-ranked singles player handled the region's sixth-ranked singles player Aney in the first match with a 6-0, 6-1 victory, extending the Spartans' lead to 3-1. At second singles, Aduru, ranked ninth in the region, bested Siviero, ranked 15th, 6-3, 6-2 to put the team within a match of clinching.
Shah would provide the clinching point for CWRU just minutes after Aduru's victory with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Josh Christensen in the fourth singles match.
The teams has split sets on each of the other three courts when play was stopped due to decision. At third singles, Sutanto, ranked 20th in the region, was even with Fouchier 1-6, 6-4, 1-1. In the fifth singles match, sophomore Ajay Mahenthiran trailed Budde in the third set, 7-5, 2-6, 0-2. At sixth singles, sophomore Casey Hishinuma was down in the third set 6-2, 1-6, 1-3.