CMS Men's Tennis Edged 5-4 by No. 2 Tufts in NCAA Semifinals

ORLANDO, Fla. - Advik Mareedu and Christian Settles won in both singles and doubles, but the No. 2 Tufts men's tennis team was able to come back from 3-1 down to edge Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 5-4 in the NCAA Division III Semifinals on Monday afternoon at the USTA National Campus.

With the loss, sixth-ranked CMS concludes its season with a 22-5 record after winning 15 maches in a row before falling to Tufts at nationals for the second year in a row (last season's defeat came in the quarterfinals).  No. 2 Tufts advances to its first-ever national championship with the win, improving to 24-1 on the year. 

CMS took the 2-1 lead after a closely-contested doubles battle, which saw Mareedu and Warren Pham earn an 8-5 win at No. 3, and Settles and Matthew Robinson pick up an 8-6 win at No. 1.

Mareedu had a dominant effort at No. 1 singles to put CMS ahead 3-1, winning 6-0, 6-3 over Rishabh Sharda, and avenging a three-set loss to Sharda in a Tufts 7-2 win during the regular season. 

Tufts earned the next three singles wins at No. 2, No. 5, and No. 6, to take a 4-3 lead. Pham, playing at No. 5, was unable to replicate his third set heriocs from 48 hours earlier, despite battling back to win the second set. Daniel Blackman had a valiant effort at No. 6  for the Stags, fighting off four match points to get to a tiebreaker before falling 6-3, 7-6(4). Settles, playing in his final match as a Stag, completed an undefeated two days of singles and doubles with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 4 singles which evened the match at 4-all.

Alex Ganchev of Tufts, though, was able to come up with a key break late in the second set and come away with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 3 to break the 4-4 tie and give Tufts the win. Ian Freer was able to fight off the first match point on his second serve to get it to deuce, but Ganchev was able to avoid the second-set tiebreaker by winning the decisive point to clinch the match. 

Mareedu will advance on to play in the NCAA Division III Singles Championship, where he will be one of the top competitors for the individual national title after winning the ITA Cup championship in the fall. 

#6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (4) vs. #2 Tufts (5)
May 15, 2023 at Lake Nona, FL. (USTA National Campus) NCAA Semifinal

Doubles

1. Matthew Robinson/Christian Settles (CMS) def. Derin Acaroglu/Vuk Vuksanovic (TUFTS) 8-6
2. Josh Belandres/Rishabh Sharda (TUFTS) def. Ian Freer/Morgan Schilling (CMS) 8-6
3. Advik Mareedu/Warren Pham (CMS) def. Alex Ganchev/Jack Moldenhauer (TUFTS) 8-5

Singles

1. Advik Mareedu def. Rishabh Sharda (TUFTS) 6-0, 6-3
2. Vuk Vuksanovic (TUFTS) def. Matthew Robinson (CMS) 6-1, 6-1
3. Alex Ganchev (TUFTS) def. Ian Freer (CMS) 6-4, 7-5
4. Christian Settles (CMS) def. Derin Acaroglu (TUFTS) 6-4, 7-5
5. Javier Gonzalez (TUFTS) def. Warren Pham (CMS) 6-2, 3-6, 6-0
6. Andrej Djokic (TUFTS) def. Daniel Blackman (CMS) 6-3, 7-6(4)

Order of completion
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 1, 2, 5, 6, 4, 3