All But One: CMS Men's Tennis Has Seven of Eight Quarterfinalists at ITA West Regionals

Full Brackets/Results

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team nearly has an intra-squad scrimmage tomorrow in the quarterfinal round of the ITA West Regional singles championship, with seven of the eight spots filled by Stags after the first two rounds were completed this afternoon at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

Senior Nikolai Parodi, junior Jack Katzman, junior Casey Morris, sophomore Nic Meister, junior Robert Liu, senior Daniel Park and first-year Ian Freer will all be in action tomorrow in the ITA Quarterfinals, which means that CMS after the first day of three has already guaranteed itself at least one player going to the ITA Cup in two weeks. The top two finishers in each event will earn invitations this year (previously only the champion advanced) and with seven of the eight players left in the field, at least one Stag will be in the finals. 

Katzman can make it an all-CMS semifinal round, as he is the only player who does not have to face a teammate in tomorrow's quarterfinals, which are scheduled for 11 a.m. Katzman, who beat CMS teammate Michael Hao in the Round of 16, will meet James Wei of Caltech, the only non-Stag remaining, for the right to play in the semifinal round at 2 p.m. The Stag vs. Stag match-ups in the quarters will include Parodi vs. Liu, Morris vs. Park and Freer vs. Meister.

The big win of the day for the Stags came from Morris, an unseeded entrant, who took down No. 3 seed Varun Shanker of Caltech in the first round in three sets (2-6, 6-1, 6-4). Mooris then defeated Pim Van Der Veer of Whittier 6-2, 6-3 to advance through to tomorrow's quarterfinals. 

Freer was dominant in his first collegiate tournament, winning 6-1, 6-3 in the first round and 6-2, 6-0 in the second. He will meet Meister, who put up similar results with a 6-4, 6-1 win in the opening round and a 6-2, 6-0 win in the Round of 16. 

Liu had perhaps the longest road to the quarterfinals with two tight matches, knocking off Hayden Snyder of Pomona-Pitzer in the first round 7-5, 7-6 (12-10 in the tiebreaker) and then went three sets against Donovan Lilov of Redlands, 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-3.

In the B Flight of singles, sophomore Ethan Carroll picked up two wins to move into the quarterfinals, taking his first one 6-0, 6-1 and then winning the second round 6-4, 6-1. The C flight saw senior Jake Berber earn a dominant 6-0, 6-1 win. 

CMS also had a successful opening round in doubles, with four teams moving on. Freer and Parodi, the No. 3 seed, earned an 8-1 win in their first round, while Liu and Katzman, the No. 4 seed, also earned an 8-1 win. Berber and Morris earned an 8-6 win and will move on the quarterfinals due to the withdrawal of their Round of 16 opponent with an injury, while Meister and Park advanced with an 8-5 win. 

The action begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow with doubles action, followed by the singles quarterfinals at 11 a.m. and the semifinals at 2 p.m.