Video Tribute: The CMS Men's Tennis Class of 2021
As part of NCAA Division III week (Apr. 5-11), we will be honoring the senior classes for all 21 of our varsity sports. A number of our student-athletes elected to take a semester or a school year off and could return to action next season, but we have chosen to honor the senior classes as they would have been, without the COVID-19 interruption. The members of the Class of 2021 lost so much of what they had built towards in their first 2-3 years of competition when the pandemic hit, but still clearly left their mark on CMS Athletics.
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The CMS Men's Tennis Class of 2021 competed in the national championship match as sophomores in 2019, coming up just short in a 5-3 defeat to Emory. The Stags had a loaded roster capable of winning the whole thing in either of the last two years, but the pandemic put on hold their pursuit of the third national title in program history.
Over their two-plus seasons of competition, the CMS men's tennis seniors helped the program compile a 77-7 dual match record, while keeping alive an unbeaten streak in SCIAC competition that stretches all the way back to 2006, with a perfect 18-0 in league contests. The Stags won the NCAA Regionals twice as well, defeating Trinity 5-1 as first-years and then 5-0 in their sophomore seasons.
In 2020, CMS was ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time spring sports were canceled with a 14-1 record, and the seniors were expecting to finish out their careers this spring as hosts of the NCAA Division III Championships, hoping to go out with a national title on their home courts.
The three members of the CMS Men's Tennis Class of 2021 are as follows:
Jack Katzman (Seattle, Wash. - Claremont McKenna, Data Science and Psychology)
Katzman is a three-time All-American, finishing in the top five in the nation in singles all three seasons with the Stags, including No. 4 in an abbreviated junior year. He reached the NCAA Division III Singles Championship match as a first-year, finishing as runner-up, and had a 29-3 singles record as a sophomore, which included a remarkable 22-0 in dual matches against the usually difficult CMS schedule. He won his singles match against Emory in the NCAA Division III team finals, as well as his semifinal match against Chicago to help the Stags advance to the finals. In a little more than two seasons, Katzman amassed 137 wins, 69 in singles and 68 in doubles, putting him on pace to rank among the all-time leaders in program history. Katzman has been an ITA Scholar-Athlete and SCIAC All-Academic Team selection as a psychology and data science major at Claremont McKenna. He has held a marketing internship at Nasdaq in New York City since June, and has also had a pair of summer internships with LevelTen Energy in Seattle. In 2019, he represented the USA at the Pan Am Maccabi Games, reaching the singles finals.
Robert Liu (San Diego, Calif. - Claremont McKenna, Economics and Psychology)
Liu was a second-team All-SCIAC selection as a sophomore, when he finsihed with an 18-7 singles record and a 28-6 doubles mark (mostly teaming with Katzman). He was a SCIAC Athlete of the Week selection as well after a dominant performance against Bowdoin in the Stag-Hen Championship match, and also picked up singles wins over Amherst, Williams and Middlebury. He had key doubles wins in the NCAA quarterfinals and semifinals against Bowdoin and Chicago to help CMS get through to the finals. An economics and psychology dual major at Claremont McKenna, Liu has earned ITA Scholar-Athlete honors and SCIAC All-Academic Team distinction. He has been active on campus with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and as an administrator with Claremont Colleges Club Tennis, while off campus he has held internships with C2 Commercial and as a financial analyst with Atalaya Capital Management in New York City.
Casey Morris (Atherton, Calif. - Claremont McKenna, Economics and Data Science)
Morris has had a combined record of 50-14 in singles and doubles in his career with the Stags, including 23-6 as a sophomore, when he lost only two total matches in dual play. He had a big 8-5 win in doubles against Wesleyan in a match that the Stags won 5-4. In his shortened junior year, he won a three-setter over All-American and No. 3 seed Varun Shanker of Caltech at the ITA West Regionals and reached the quarterfinals before falling to teammate Daniel Park. An ITA Scholar-Athlete Award winner and a SCIAC All-Academic Team selection as an economics and data science major at Claremont McKenna, Morris has served as the lead research analyst at the Lowe Institute of Political Economy on campus, and held an internship off campus as a data analyst with Wellpath, a heathcare provider for patients in challenging clinical environments. He has also been a first-year guide for CMC, and served as an intern with Universal Tennis.