CLEVELAND – The University of Chicago men's tennis team absorbed its first loss of the season to Emory University 5-1 in the final of the ITA Division III National Team Indoor Championship on Sunday morning.
The No. 5-ranked Maroons moved to 9-1 on the season and replicated their second-place finish at ITA Indoors for the second year in-a-row. The No. 2-ranked Eagles improved to 5-2.
In a rematch of last year's ITA Indoor final, UChicago fell behind 3-0 after doubles and wasn't able to recover the momentum. Junior Nicolas Chua claimed a win at No. 2 singles by scores of 7-5, 6-2. The dual was played to decision once Emory captured the clinching fifth team point.
"We have to credit Emory in this match," said Head Coach Jay Tee. "They're a championship program that knows what it takes to win titles. We played hard today and we are starting to establish ourselves as a premier program, but we need to continue learning what it means to play at a championship level and to take that next step. This loss stings a little bit because we thought we had closed that gap since last year, but it's apparent that we have quite a bit of improvement left to make."
Emory 5, UChicago 1
Singles
1. Aman Manji (EMORY) def. David Liu (UC) 6-3, 6-1
2. Nicolas Chua (UC) def. Jonathan Jemison (EMORY) 7-5, 6-2
3. Adrien Bouchet (EMORY) def. Charlie Pei (UC) 6-2, 6-4
4. Luke Tsai (UC) vs. James Spaulding (EMORY) 3-6, 6-2, 3-1, unfinished
5. Alec Josepher (EMORY) vs. Erik Kerrigan (UC) 6-3, 3-2, unfinished
6. Ninan Kumar (UC) vs. Josh Goodman (EMORY), unfinished
Doubles
1. Scott Rubinstein/James Spaulding (EMORY) def. Ninan Kumar/Erik Kerrigan (UC) 9-8
2. Adrien Bouchet/Max Renke (EMORY) def. Tyler Raclin/Max Hawkins (UC) 8-5
3. David Omsky/Jonathan Jemison (EMORY) def. Bobby Bethke/Charlie Pei (UC) 8-3
NEXT MATCH:
- Friday, Mar. 10 – Niagara University at UChicago (XS Tennis)
