CLEVELAND — The University of Chicago men's tennis team, ranked third in the nation, advanced to the semifinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Men's Indoor National Championship with a 6-3 win over No. 18-ranked Case Western Reserve University on Friday evening.
The top-seeded Maroons (7-0 record) trailed 2-1 after the doubles session, with the No. 3 pairing of senior Charlie Pei and first-year Joshua Xu nabbing an 8-4 win.
The match soon swung in the singles portion as sophomore Alejandro Rodriguez claimed a quick victory (6-2, 6-4) at No. 4 and his classmate Jeremy Yuan did the same (6-3, 6-2) in the second spot.
The Maroons eventually claimed four of the six matchups in straight sets, while Pei (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) bounced back to win after dropping the opening frame at No. 3. Junior Erik Kerrigan and Xu got wins at No. 1 and No. 6, respectively.
UChicago takes the court again at 4:30 PM (ET) on Saturday to face ninth-ranked Washington University-St. Louis. The fourth-seeded Bears defeated No. 5-seed Carnegie Mellon University 5-4 earlier on Friday.
UChicago 6, Case Western Reserve 3
Singles
1. Erik Kerrigan (UC) def. Matt Chen (CWRU) 6-4, 7-5
2. Jeremy Yuan (UC) def. Anthony Kanam (CWRU) 6-3, 6-2
3. Charlie Pei (UC) def. Aaron Umen (CWRU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
4. Alejandro Rodriguez (UC) def. Max Vicario (CWRU) 6-2, 6-4
5. Rob Stroup (CWRU) def. Alex Guzhva (UC) 6-4, 7-5
6. Joshua Xu (UC) def. Jon Powell (CWRU) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles
1. Anthony Kanam/Jon Powell (CWRU) def. Tyler Raclin/Jeremy Yuan (UC) 8-3
2. Zach Hennessey/Matt Chen (CWRU) def. Erik Kerrigan/Ninan Kumar (UC) 8-5
3. Joshua Xu/Charlie Pei (UC) def. Aaron Umen/Chaitanya Aduru (CWRU) 8-4
NEXT MATCH:
- Saturday, Feb. 23 @ 4:30 PM (ET) – UChicago vs. Washington-St. Louis (at Cleveland, Ohio)
