Semifinals Set At 2017 ITA Division III National Men's Team Indoor Championship

CLEVELAND, OH – The semifinals of the 2017 ITA Division III National Men’s Team Indoor Championship are set following a full day of opening play on Friday at the Cleveland Racquet Club.

Top-seeded Emory will take No. 4 Carnegie Mellon, while No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis faces No. 3 Chicago. Both semifinal contests will get underway at 12:30 p.m. EDT, with live streaming coverage provided exclusively by FloTennis.

For updated draws, results, live scoring and video, daily video highlights and photo galleries, head to the Division I Men’s National Indoors event page. On social media, be sure to follow @ITA_Tennis on Twitter and Instagram and use the hashtag #ITAIndoors to join the conversation. FloTennis will be on site providing live streaming coverage of all four days of competition. FloTennis is a subscription-based service with monthly and annual rate options. To sign up and view the live stream, click here.

No. 1 Emory 7, No. 8 Trinity 2
Trinity took it to the top-seeded Eagles in doubles, nearly winning on all three courts, but settling for a 2-1 advantage. The No. 3 duo of Chas Mayer and Clayton Niess defeated 2016 ITA Oracle Cup Division III champions David Omsky and Jonathan Jemison 8-4, and at No. 1 doubles, Wilson Lambeth and Matt Tyer topped Scott Rubinstein and James Spaulding 8-4. Emory’s Adrien Bouchet and Max Renke slipped past Jordan Pitts and Liam Crawley in a tiebreak, 9-8.

Emory’s struggles didn’t last for long, as they quickly swung momentum in its favor with sharp singles play. The Eagles won all six first sets and eventually closed out all six courts to secure the 7-2 victory.

Aman Manji won 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1 singles over Lambeth; Jemison was a 6-4, 6-4 winner at No. 2 singles against Chas Mayer; at No. 3 singles, Bouchet won 6-2, 6-2 over Pitts, and at No. 4 singles, Spaulding clipped Crawley 6-1, 6-3. Alec Josepher and Fujitani McKenna went three sets at No. 5 singles, with Josepher garnering a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (6) decision, and Josh Goodman won at No. 6 singles, 6-1, 6-2 over Matt Tyer.

No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis 9, No. 7 Kenyon 0
Washington University in St. Louis swept the doubles in its match with No. 7 Kenyon. The No. 2 Bears saw their No. 1 doubles duo of Jason Haugen and Konrad Kozlowski defeat Jacob Zalenski and Nicholas Paolucci 8-1, and No. 2 doubles team Peter Hazlett and Weston Noall top Jeremy Bush and J.J. Kroot 8-3. At No. 3 doubles, Bernardo Neves and Johnny Wu scored an 8-6 victory over Austin Diehl and Mike Roberts.

While many of the singles matches were tight, the Bears found a way to claim victory on all six courts to preserve the shutout.

At No. 1 singles, Wu outlasted Paolucci 7-6 (11), 7-5; Haugen edged Zalenski in three sets 7-6, 6-7, 1-0 (6) at No. 2 singles, and at No 3 singles, John Carswell topped Michael Liu 7-6, 6-3. At No. 4 singles, Radha Vishnubhotla took down Austin Diehl 6-4, 7-6, while Bernardo Neves (6-4, 6-2 over Weston Noall) and Robin Engel (6-1, 7-6 over Mike Roberts) picked up points at No. 5 and 6 singles, respectively.

No. 4 Carnegie Mellon 6, No. 5 Case Western Reserve 4
The host Spartans started off the match strong, taking two of three courts in doubles against the Tartans to grab a 2-1 advantage. Case Western Reserve’s Fred Daum and John Benedetto won at No. 1 doubles over Daniel Levine and Vayum Arora 8-5, while at No. 3 doubles, Anthony Kanam and Sam Concannon topped Chaz Downing and Nicholas Calzolano 8-5. Carnegie Mellon scored a point at No. 2 doubles, with Jeffrey Chen and Kenny Zheng defeating James Fojtasek and Philip Gruber 8-2.

The Tartans turned the tide in singles, winning at No. 4 (Mark Prettyman def. Rob Stroup 6-2, 6-4) and No. 1 (Levine def. Fojtasek 6-4, 6-4) singles to move ahead 3-2. Concannon’s 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 5 singles over Arora knotted the match 3-3, but Carnegie Mellon notched wins at No. 3 singles (Downing def. Josh Dughi 6-4, 6-4) and No. 2 singles (Zheng def. Rajupet Siddharth 4-6, 6-2, 6-2) to win the match and advance to the semifinals.

Case Western Reserve’s Kevin Dong concluded the match with a 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (8) victory over Kunal Wadwani at No. 6 singles.

No. 3 Chicago 7, No. 6 Pomona-Pitzer 2
The Maroons won all three doubles matches against the Sagehens to snag a 3-0 lead heading into singles. At No. 1 doubles, Erik Kerrigan and Ninan Kumar beat Graham Massen and Marko Mandic 8-3, and at No. 2 doubles, Tyler Raclin and Max Hawkins bested Avery Bicks and Anthony Bello 8-6. The No. 3 doubles team of Charlie Pei and Bobby Bethke edged Spencer Simonides and Jake Yasgoor 8-5.

Chicago picked up singles wins at No. 1 (David Liu def. Yasgoor 6-2, 7-6), No. 2 (Nicholas Chua def. Graham Maassen 6-4, 6-2), No. 3 (Pei def. Bello 6-3, 6-4) and No. 4 (Luke Tsai def. Josh Kim 6-3, 7-5) positions to push its margin to 7-0. Pomona-Pitzer recorded a win at No. 5 singles, as Mandic topped Erik Kerrigan 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (9), and at No. 6 singles (Josh Gearou def. Jaird Meyer 3-6, 7-6, 1-0 (5).