Stags Finish Third At NCAA Championships
The men's tennis team finished third at the NCAA Division III Championships with a hard fought 5-4 win over Middlebury College. CMS (27-8) earned the 10th top three finish in their history.
On Wednesday, CMS lost to Washington University (MO) 5-1 in the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship semifinals. Against Wash U, the Stags got off to a rough start in the doubles losing quickly at #3 position 8-0. The #1 and #2 teams both held leads, but fell 8-6 and 8-5 respectively. CMS was down 4-0 after losing at #6 singles before Michael Starr (SO, San Ramon) won at #4 7-5, 6-3 to give the team a point. The Bears won at #5 to secure the win.
Against Middlebury in the third place match, CMS earned the first two points as Ronald Wu (FR, Los Altos) and Michael Starr (SO - San Ramon, CA) won at #3 doubles 8-4, followed closely by an 8-4 win at #1 doubles by Lawrence Wang (JR - Orange, CA) and Guillaume Schils (JR - Shaker Heights, OH). Middlebury won 9-7 at #2 to cut the Stags' lead to 2-1 heading into singles.
Wang put CMS up 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-1 win at #1 singles. The Panthers answered right back with a 6-4, 7-5 win at #2. Drew Sabater (JR - Claremont, CA) put CMS up 4-1 as he won 6-2, 6-4 at #4. Middlebury again answered with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 win at #6 and then tied the match with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win at #5. Starr clinched the victory for the Stags with a 7-6 (10), 6-2 win at #3, - a match where Starr came back from a 6-2 deficit in the first set tie-break, and saved a total of seven set points.
The Stags finish the season with the most wins in their illustrious history and add another NCAA team trophy to their collection. Only two other schools in the country have as many top three NCAA finishes as CMS. The Stags had one of the most difficult schedules in the country. CMS beat 14 teams that are currently nationally ranked including eight top-10 Division III teams. CMS played 12 of the teams in the NCAA Championships including six of the seven other teams in the quarterfinals. Of their eight losses, five were to top-10 Division III teams and the other three were to NAIA schools, two of which were ranked.
NCAA Division III Men's Team Semifinals (Wednesday, May 14)
| Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 1 | vs | Washington Univ St. Louis 5 | Winner | Score |
| 1. Guillaume Schils / Wang | vs | Cutler / Hoeland | WUSL | 8-6 |
| 2. Hough / E. MacColl | vs | Nirmal Choradia / Watts | WUSL | 8-6 |
| 3. Starr / Ronald Wu | vs | Stein / Woods | WUSL | 8-0 |
| WUSL led 3-0 after doubles / Order of Completion: #3, #2, #1 | ||||
| 1. Lawrence Wang | vs | John Watts | unfinished | 6-7(6), 3-4 |
| 2. Eric MacColl | vs | Charlie Cutler | unfinished | 3-6, 4-5 |
| 3. Mike Starr | vs | Danny Levy | CMS | 7-5, 6-3 |
| 4. Drew Sabater | vs | Max Woods | unfinished | 6-3, 5-6 |
| 5. Russell Brockett | vs | Chris Hoeland | WUSL | 6-3, 6-4 |
| 6. Ben Hough | vs | Isaac Stein | WUSL | 6-2, 6-4 |
| WUSL wins 5-1 / Order of Completion: #6, #3, #5 | ||||
NCAA Division III Men's Team 3rd / 4th Place Match (Thursday, May 15)
| Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 5 | vs | Middlebury 4 | Winner | Score |
| 1. Guillaume Schils / Wang | vs | Marinkovic/ Thomson | CMS | 8-4 |
| 2. Hough / E. MacColl | vs | Lee / Chris Mason | MC | 9-7 |
| 3. Starr / Ronald Wu | vs | Bonfiglio / Peters | CMS | 8-4 |
| CMS led 2-1 after doubles / Order of Completion: #3, #1, #2 | ||||
| 1. Lawrence Wang | vs | Andrew Lee | CMS | 6-3, 6-1 |
| 2. Eric MacColl | vs | Filip Marinkovic | MC | 6-4, 7-5 |
| 3. Mike Starr | vs | Andrew Thomson | CMS | 7-6(10), 6-2 |
| 4. Drew Sabater | vs | Andy Peters | CMS | 6-2, 7-5 |
| 5. Russell Brockett | vs | Rich Bonfiglio | MC | 6-4, 7-6(5) |
| 6. Ben Hough | vs | Peter Odell | MC | 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 |
| CMS wins 5-4 / Order of Completion: #1, #2, #4, #6, #5, #3 | ||||
Wang and Schils will continue playing at the NCAA Championships. The duo are one of the 16 teams in the doubles draw and Wang is one of the 32 players in the singles draw. The round of 32 singles begin at 9:00 am EST tomorrow with round of 16 matches at 1:00 pm. The round of 16 doubles matches begin at 3:00 pm EST.
For complete coverage of the NCAA singles and doubles, including audio broadcasts from radiotennis.com, go to:
http://abacus.bates.edu/sports/mten/08/Live%20Stats%20Day%20One.htm