From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team, ranked first in Division III, set a new program record for wins in a season with a 5-0 win over the University of Rochester in the quarterfinal round of the 2023 University Athletic Association Championship on Friday morning at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
With the win, the Spartans improved to 26-4 overall, surpassing the previous program record of 25 wins, set last season. CWRU improved to 21-0 against Division III opposition this season and has now won 11 consecutive matches.
Rochester fell to 7-9 following the loss.
CWRU will now advance to the UAA Semifinals to face seventh-ranked Emory in Saturday's semifinal match at 12:30 p.m. The Eagles advanced with a 5-1 win over 28th-ranked Brandeis in their quarterfinal meeting on Friday. Saturday's contest will be a rematch of the quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor Championship, which CWRU won 5-1, and last year's UAA semifinal, which the Spartans won 5-0.
Against Rochester, the Spartans swept doubles play for the 21st time through 30 matches this season and for the 12th straight match. Senior James Hopper and junior Vishwa Aduru defeated Krish Vennam and Kai Yuminaga 8-1 at no. 1 doubles and sophomore Ansh Shah and junior Sahil Dayal followed with an 8-5 win at no. 3 doubles over Kavin Shukla and Rahul Ravi to put CWRU up 2-0. Seniors Diego Maza and Chris Provenzano completed the sweep with an 8-2 win against Kenneth Lee and Ahaan Malhotra at third doubles.
In singles play, Shah and sophomore Casey Hishinuma provided the two clinching victories within minutes of each other. Shah defeated Ravi 6-2, 6-1 at fourth singles to extend CWRU's lead to 4-0, and Hishinuma clinched the match with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Malhotra.
CWRU was also up a set on each of the other four singles courts when play was stopped. Hopper led Vennam 6-1, 5-1 at no. 1 singles, Aduru was ahead of Yuminaga 6-3, 6-1 at no. 2 singles, senior Michael Sutanto held a 6-1, 4-3 advantage over Shukla at no. 3 singles, and Maza led Kei Ogawa 6-1, 5-1 at no. 6 singles.