Jack Katzman Sweeps Into ITA Regional Finals for CMS Men's Tennis

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Sophomore Jack Katzman continued his run through the ITA West Region singles championships by winning two matches on Saturday to advance to the finals, while also moving into the semifinals in doubles with partner Julian Gordy.

Katzman, the tournament's top seed, has won four matches in two days without dropping a set and will square off against Chad Leduff of UC Santa Cruz in the finals tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at Pomona-Pitzer's Pauley Courts. He earned two wins over the host Sagehens on Saturday, knocking off Octave Bellet in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-2 and then defeating Josh Gearou in the semifinals 6-3, 6-4 after Gearou defeated Avinash Vemuri 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals earlier in the day. 

In doubles, Katzman and Gordy picked up two wins on Saturday as well, defeating Whittier 8-3 and then winning an All-CMS quarterfinal over Alfred Simental and Nic Meister 8-4. Simental and Meister moved on with an 8-1 win over Jack Bernstein and Samuel Gearou in their first match of the day. Katzman and Gordy will move on to face Leduff and Ryan Dugan of UC Santa Cruz in one semifinal on Sunday at 9 a.m.

The possibility remains for another All-CMS battle in the doubles championship as Jake Williams and Robert Liu remain alive in the other semifinal after two wins on Saturday. They knocked off a Cal Lutheran team 8-3 in the round of 16 and then defeated the tournament's No. 4 seed, Brad Cummins and Chase Lipscomb of Redlands, by an 8-5 score.

Williams and Liu will face off against James Wei and Varun Shanker of Caltech in the semifinals, who are the tournament's top seed but who has won all three of their matches thus far in tiebreakers. 

Katzman will be trying to add an ITA West Regional title tomorrow to an impressive singles resume in his young career, which included a spot in the NCAA Division III National Championship match last year as a freshman, where he finished as a runner-up.