ROME, Georgia - Top-seeded
Advik Mareedu of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team took a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Connor Griff of Hamilton in the opening round of the ITA Cup Division III Singles Championship on Thursday at the Rome Tennis Center, advancing through to the quarterfinal round tomorrow.
Mareedu is trying for his second ITA Cup national championship after winning it as a freshman in 2022. He has won the ITA West Regionals all three years, and now stands at 21-2 in his career in ITA fall singles competition.
Mareedu didn't suffer a service break, and was able to break Griff twice in the first set and once in the second for a straight-set win. He moves on to face Kael Shalin Shah of Denison in the quarterfinals tomorrow morning.
CMS nearly had an even bigger day, but had close losses in singles and doubles.
Warren Pham was two points away from a possible three-set win after dropping the first to Ethan Green of Denison, standing at 30-30 and up 5-4 in the third, but Green was able to make some big defensive plays to come out with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory. Pham will face Ryan Warren of Trinity (Texas) in a regional battle for a consolation match tomorrow.
In doubles, the first-year team of
Caleb Settles and
Brandon Vu nearly knocked off Reuben Giorgio and Theo Billson of Wisconsin-Whitewater, but dropped a pair of tiebreakers as Giorgio/Billson took a 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 10-7 win. Settles and Vu were up 6-4 in the first set tiebreaker, but Girogio and Billson, who defeated the defending NCAA Champions in their regional (Gage Gohl and Tyler Haddorff of Gustavus Adolphus), were able to fight off the two set points and prevail 8-6. Settles and Vu will have another regional battle in the consolation round tomorrow against Rocco Mendez and Kishan Kersten of Trinity.
Pham and
Matthew Robinson were edged 6-4, 6-4 in their doubles matchup with JAvier Gonzalez and Stavros Mastrogamvrakis of Tufts. They will have a consolation match tomorrow against the top seed, Aiden Drover-Mattinen and Andy Zhu of RPI, who dropped a 10-8 third-set tiebreaker of their own (to Shah and Green of Denison).
Pham will get Friday started at 9 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Pacific) with his consolation match, while Mareedu's quarterfinal is scheduled for 11 a.m. (8 a.m. Pacific).
