The No. 4 ranked Emory men's tennis team (15-5, 1-1 UAA) continued its postseason on Friday afternoon, taking on the No. 3 ranked Case Western Reserve Spartans in the semifinal round of the UAA Championship tournament. With Emory being the tournament's third seed and the Spartans being the two-seed, the match shaped up to be a heavyweight bout between two of the nation's top men's tennis programs. While Emory was able to push the Spartans to the edge during doubles play, the Eagles fell to Case Western Reserve, 5-2.
The Eagles secured the first point of the afternoon when freshman Christian Liew and graduate student Justin Waldman dominated on court three, pulling out an 8-3 win. Senior Nolan Shah and sophomore Dean Kamenev pushed their opponents on court two, seeing the match be tied at three points apiece. Yet, the Spartans went on a three-point run to put Kamenev and Shah in a hole they ultimately could not climb out of and fell by an 8-6 margin.
Seniors Ryan Glanville and Brandon Cohen played in another back-and-forth match on Friday afternoon. Playing on court one, the duo jumped out to a 5-2 lead. Yet, the Spartans went on a 5-2 run of their own to force a tiebreaker. Glanville and Cohen dropped the tiebreaker, falling 8-7 in the match to see Case Western Reserve head to singles play with a 2-1 lead.
Liew was the only Eagle to earn a point during the singles portion of the day. He won his match on court five in straight sets, both by a 6-2 margin, to extend his singles winning streak to six straight.
The Spartans notched their first singles win when Ajay Mahenthiran took down Kamenev on court one in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-3. The Spartans' Ansh Shah then bested Waldman in straight sets on court four, while Michael Sutanto took down Glanville on court three in straight sets as well to clinch the match for Case Western Reserve. The remaining matches were abandoned after the Spartans had clinched a 5-2 win.
Emory will now shift its focus to the third-place match against No. 12 ranked WashU. The meeting will be a rematch of the ITA Team Indoor National Championship match, where Emory won, 4-0, to take the event crown. The match with WashU will start at 8:30 AM tomorrow morning in Altamonte Springs, Florida.