Wood and Butts to square off for D-III singles title; doubles into semis
MASON, Ohio – Another national championship trophy is guaranteed to be coming to Claremont. We just don't know who is going to be carrying it home on the plane yet, junior Skyler Butts (CMC) or senior Warren Wood (CMC). The two Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis players each advanced to the finals of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Singles Championships, by winning their quarterfinal and semifinal matches on May 22 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. CMS last had a singles player win the national championship in 1993 when Ryan McKee took home the trophy.
The two will play each other for the championship on May 23 at 10 a.m. EDT. The match can be watched on the NCAA's live video webpage. 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.
It is 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.
To reach the finals, Butts defeated Mary Washington's Tyler Carey 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Chris Krimbill of Case Western Reserve 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 in the semifinals.
Wood had his hands full in his quarterfinal match against Carnegie Mellon's Abhisek Alla, coming back to win 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-2. Then in the semifinals, Wood took down Michael Buxbaum of Johns Hopkins in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. With the wins on Friday, Wood overtook teammate Nikolas Marino (CMC) to become the program's all-time singles wins leader.
Not to be overlooked, CMS' doubles team of Wood and senior Joe Dorn (CMC) also stayed alive with a win on Friday. They defeated Sam Geier and Tim Rosensteel 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the quarterfinals. They will face a team from Middlebury or Wash U in the semifinals at 11:30 a.m. EDT on May 23 and should they advance to the finals, the finals are scheduled for 2 p.m. on the same day. The matches can be watched live on the NCAA's live video webpage.
CMS' last national championship winning doubles team was in 2008 when Guillaume Schils and Lawrence Wang were crowned as champions.
Brackets with times, results and live scoring for the singles and doubles championships can be found here.
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