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CMS Men's Tennis off to Strong Start after First Day of ITA Regionals
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CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team had four players advance to the quarterfinals in singles and five doubles teams move on to the round of 16 on the first day of the ITA West Regionals on Friday, hosted by Pomona-Pitzer.
In the top half of the singles bracket, top-seeded Jack Katzman took a pair of quick two-set wins to move on to the quarterfinals, defeating Noah Forman of Colorado College 6-2, 6-4 and then defeating Charlie Stark of Pomona-Pitzer 6-3, 6-1. Avinash Vemuri, the No. 5 seed, was pushed in his first round match with Miha Valencic of Caltech, before prevailing 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, and then took a quicker 6-4, 6-1 win over Ryan Dugan of UC Santa Cruz.
Katzman will face Octave Bellet of Pomona-Pitzer in the quarterfinals tomorrow at 1:30, with Vemuri facing Joshua Gearou of the Sagehens, both at Pomona-Pitzer's Pauley Courts. Those two winners will then meet in the semifinals at 5 p.m.
In the bottom half of the bracket, No. 6 seed Robert Liu coasted into the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-1 win in the opening round over Patryk Kozlowski of Caltech, followed by a 6-3, 6-2 win over Samuel Gearou of Pomona-Pitzer. No. 10 seed Nic Meister also moved onto the quarters as well, taking a 6-0, 6-3 win over Jacob Lee of Chapman, and then defeating James Wei of Caltech 6-0, 7-6 (7-3). Wei had previous prevailed in a long three-setter over Julian Gordy of CMS 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Meister will meet the No. 2 seed, Jed Kronenberg of Pomona-Pitzer, tomorrow at 1:30, while Liu will face the No. 3 seed, Chad Leduff of UC Santa Cruz.
The other big story of the singles competition for the Stags was Ethan Carroll, the No. 29 seed in a 32-player bracket, who pulled a first-round upset over the defending ITA West Champion, No. 4 seed Chase Lipscomb of Redlands in three sets (3-6, 6-3, 6-4). Carroll then fell in the Round of 16 to No. 13 Joshua Gearou of Pomona-Pitzer 6-2, 7-5.
The big doubles win of the day for the Stags was Jay Yeam and Casey Morris (the No. 27 seed), who took down sixth-seeded Thomas Reznik and Brysl Libao of Redlands 8-7 (7-2 in the tiebreaker). The other doubles teams to advance include No. 17 seed Carroll and Vemuri (8-3 winners over St. Ambrose), No. 12 seed Jake Williams and Liu (8-3 winners over Pomona-Pitzer), No. 7 seed Alfred Simental and Meister (8-6 winners over Redlands) and No. 2 seed Katzman and Gordy (8-1 winners over Chapman).