A clean sweep; Stags add NCAA D-III singles and doubles titles to trophy case
MASON, Ohio – Seniors Warren Wood (CMC) and Joe Dorn (CMC) completed the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team's week of dominance at the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championships by winning the NCAA singles and doubles titles on May 23 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. CMS earned a clean sweep of national titles during the week, also winning the team championship on Wednesday against Middlebury, CMS' first national title since 1981.
The day began with Wood winning the singles championship over fellow Stag, junior Skyler Butts (CMC). Wood won in two sets over Butts, 6-1, 6-4. CMS last had a singles player win the national championship in 1993 when Ryan McKee took home the trophy. Wood reached the finals last year as well but lost to Amherst's Joey Fritz.
This is not the first time that Wood and Butts have faced off in the championship match of a prestigious tournament. Just under a month ago, Wood defeated Butts in straight sets to win the Ojai singles crown. Saturday marked the first time since 2011 that the singles finals have been played between two players from one team. Emory was the last team to do so.
After Wood captured the singles title, he quickly jumped into the doubles semifinals with Dorn. In the semis, they had a rematch against Palmer Campbell and Peter Heidrich of Middlebury who they defeated 8-3 in the team championship Wednesday. On Saturday, Dorn and Wood defeated them in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
Then in the championship match later in the afternoon, the CMS seniors went the distance against North Carolina Wesleyan's Robert Kjellberg and Sebastian Sikh, winning 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 to win the national title and avenge last season's upset loss in the opening round as the top seed.
CMS' last national championship winning doubles team was in 2008 when Guillaume Schils and Lawrence Wang were crowned as champions.
Singles and Doubles Finals Video Recap (NCAA.com)
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