CMS Men's Tennis Earns Dominant 5-0 Win for SCIAC Title
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps tennis team needed less than two hours (1:46) to earn a dominant 5-0 win over No. 19 Redlands to capture its 17th straight SCIAC Championship on Friday afternoon at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
With the win, CMS moves to 25-3 on the year, including 21 wins in a row since falling to 4-3 with losses to Emory and Case Western at the ITA Indoor Championship. Redlands slips to 13-7 on the year with the loss.
CMS has earned the SCIAC's automatic bid in every season since 2006 (with a two-year interruption due to the pandemic), including capturing all five SCIAC Postseason Tournaments since the league went to the new format in 2018. The Stags have won 161 SCIAC-sponsored matches in a row, including 151 in the regular season, and 10 in the postseason.
Redlands played CMS tough in the regular season meeting, which the Stags won 6-3, but this time around CMS asserted itself right from the start, controlling doubles to take a 3-0 lead. Warren Pham and Anirudh Reddy earned an 8-1 win at No. 3 doubles, while Matthew Robinson and Ian Freer at No. 1, and Advik Mareedu and Josh Kim at No. 2, each won by 8-3 scores. Pham and Reddy are undefeated in three matches as a pair this season, while Reddy has won eight of his last nine with three different partners. Similarly, Freer and Robinson have won their last 10 against D3 competition and are the top ranked doubles pair in the West. Kim and Mareedu began their partnership in early April and are 7-2 in that span. In the last 30 days, CMS is 22-2 in doubles against D3 opponents, and 23-4 against all competition.
Robinson kept the momentum going in singles, with a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 3 to put CMS ahead 4-0 and on the verge of a clinch. Mareedu and Tarm Rojanasoonthon both closed in on the decisive point simultaneously, but Rojanasoonthon was able to get there first and earn a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5 to end the match with the Stags up 5-0. Robinson moves to 21-3 in singles on the season, while Rojanasoonthon earned his 14th singles win.
Mareedu, who is ranked No. 2 in the nation, held a 6-3, 5-2 win over No. 16 Nico Calixto at No. 1 singles when the match was halted. Anirudh Gupta was also ahead 6-4, 2-1 at No. 4, while Redlands had the first set at No. 2 and No. 6.
CMS will next await NCAA selections on Monday when it finds out if it will host a regional again this season as it tries to make its way back to nationals, where it fell in the semifinals a year ago to Tufts. Nationals this season will be held at WashU in St. Louis from March 20-28, before returning to Claremont in 2025.
#1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (5) vs. #19 Redlands (0)
May 3, 2024 at Claremont, CA. (Biszantz Family Tennis Center) SCIAC Tournament Championship
Doubles
1. Ian Freer/Matthew Robinson (CMS) def. Nico Calixto/Yoav Nir (UR) 8-3
2. Advik Mareedu/Josh Kim (CMS) def. MJ Abarca/Jack Fanshawe (UR) 8-3
3. Warren Pham/Anirudh Reddy (CMS) def. Dominic Anderson/Gustavo Marcanth (UR) 8-1
Singles
1. Advik Mareedu (CMS) vs. Nico Calixto (UR) 6-3, 5-2, DNF
2. Ian Freer (CMS) vs. Dominic Anderson (UR) 6-7(5), DNF
3. Matthew Robinson (CMS) def. Gustavo Marcanth (UR) 6-1, 6-0
4. Anirudh Gupta (CMS) vs. Josh Davydov (UR) 6-4, 2-1, DNF
5. Tarm Rojanasoonthon (CMS) def. Yoav Nir (UR) 6-2, 6-2
6. Warren Pham (CMS) vs. Jax Ledwith (UR) 4-6, 1-1, DNF
Order of completion
Doubles: 3, 1, 2
Singles: 3, 5
