Stags Strong at Small College Nationals

Junior Neel Kotrappa (La Verne, CA), and sophomores Warren Wood (Del Mar, CA) and Joe Dorn (Washington D.C.) represented CMS and the West Region against all Regional Champions in the USTA / ITA National Small College Championships in Mobile, AL, October 11-13. Kotrappa finished sixth of eight singles participants, while Wood and Dorn earned third place among the eight doubles teams competing.

Kotrappa won one of three matches in Mobile, defeating Skidmore's Oliver Loutsenko 7-6(3), 6-2 on Friday. Loutsenko was #21 nationally in the season ending rankings and came in to Small College Nationals seeded third. In his first and last matches of the tournament, Kotrappa faced the #2 and #1 seeds - Kenyon's Paul Burgin and Wash U's Adam Putterman - ranked #11 and #4 nationally last season. Kotrappa lost a tough 6-3, 6-3 decision in his opening match against Burgin on Thursday, and fell to top seed Putterman in the 5th/6th playoff match on Saturday. Kotrappa completes his fall campaign with an impressive 7-2 singles mark and will be among the top 10 national singles players when the ITA Fall Rankings are released in early November.

Wood and Dorn lived up to their #3 seed by winning five of six doubles sets in convincing fashion. The Stags top pair opened play on Thursday afternoon against Kenyon's Wade Heerboth and Robert Turlington. Surrendering only one service hold early in the first set, Wood and Dorn advanced to the semis with a 6-1, 6-0 blowout. In the semis against second seeded Matt Micheli and Trey Meyer from Williams, Wood and Dorn continued their dominant play with a 6-1 first set decision. However, Williams' top pair jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the second, and Wood and Dorn struggled to regain their earlier momentum, dropping a disappointing 1-6, 6-3, (10-4). In the third place playoff against Johns Hopkins' Tanner Brown and Erik Lim on Friday, Wood and Dorn regained the aggressive, smothering gamestyle of their first three sets of the tournament to earn a 7-5, 6-2 victory. Wood and Dorn finish their fall campaign with a 7-1 record.

USTA / ITA National Small College Championships Draws and Results