Men's Tennis Clinches Spot in Ninth-Straight NCAA Elite Eight
CLAREMONT, Calif. - With a 5-1 victory over the No. 15 Trinity (TX) Tigers on an overcast Saturday afternoon, the No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team advances to the NCAA Elite Eight on May 21 at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. For the second time in as many days, the Stags used strong doubles play to build a 2-1 lead, and then added three straight set singles victories to secure the win. CMS, who defeated Trinity in the 2017 West Regional Final as well, has now advanced to nine straight NCAA Elite Eights dating back to 2010. The Stags will face the winner of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon in the NCAA Quarterfinals.
Sophomore Daniel Park (CMC) led CMS with wins at No. 3 doubles and No. 5 singles. Park and partner Robert Liu (CMC) put CMS ahead 1-0 with their ninth win as a team. Park was also first off in singles for the second day in a row, yielding only two games. In four match wins over two days, Park lost only five total games. Nikolai Parodi (CMC) earned his second win at the top singles spot in the Regional. Parodi's 6-1, 6-2 win was his 26th of the season.
With a 4-1 lead and needing only one match to clinch, four Stags raced to the finish line. Having lost a one-sided first set, sophomore Oscar Burney (CMC) won his second set at No. 3 singles and then held a 4-2 lead in the decisive third. Junior Avinash Vemuri (CMC) held a commanding 6-2, 5-2 lead at No. 5, while freshman Jack Katzman (CMC) got to match point returning with 6-0, 5-4 advantage at No. 2. But the clinch came at No. 4 singles, when junior captain Julian Gordy (CMC) converted on his second match point while serving for the match, completing a 7-6(4), 6-1 win for his 19th of the season.
CMS moves to 30-3 overall on the year, and has now won 30 or more matches in five of the last six seasons.
#5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (5) vs. #15 Trinity University (1)
May 12, 2018 at Claremont, CA (Biszantz Family Tennis Center) - NCAA 3rd Round
Doubles
1. Wilson Lambeth / Jordan Pitts (TU) def. Julian Gordy / Nikolai Parodi (CMS) 8-3
2. Oscar Burney / Jack Katzman (CMS) def. Wilson Hamilton / Jace Akagi-Okuma (TU) 8-3
3. Robert Liu / Daniel Park (CMS) def. Tilden Oliver / Lars Wiik (TU) 8-0
Singles
1. Nikolai Parodi (CMS) def. Wilson Hamilton (TU) 6-1, 6-2
2. Jack Katzman (CMS) vs. Jordan Pitts (TU) 6-0, 5-4, unfinished
3. Oscar Burney (CMS) vs. Wilson Lambeth (TU) 2-6, 6-1, 4-2 unfinished
4. Julian Gordy (CMS) def. Jace Akagi-Okuma (TU) 7-6(4), 6-1
5. Daniel Park (CMS) def. Tilden Oliver (TU) 6-1, 6-1
6. Avinash Vemuri (CMS) vs. Lars Wiik (TU) 6-2, 5-2, unfinished
Order of completion
Doubles: 3, 1, 2
Singles: 1, 5, 4