Box Score CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team took a 2-1 lead after singles wins from
Advik Mareedu and
Caleb Settles, and had to wait out a long weather delay, before
Warren Pham and
Henry Wilson finished out a 4-2 win over Case Western in the NCAA Division III Semifinals on Wednesday at the Champions Tennis Center.
With the win, the Stags improve to 34-1 on the year and advance through to the national championship match on Friday at 1 p.m. local time (10 a.m. Pacific) against the University of Chicago, which won its semifinal over Tufts 4-1 after a second long weather delay with the Maroons just one point away from the clinch.
CMS fell to Case Western in the national semifinals a year ago, but flipped the script this year, despite dropping the doubles point.
Advik Mareedu got the Stags back even with a dominant second set in a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 1 singles.
Caleb Settles finished off a 7-6, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles to give CMS a 2-1 lead before inclement weather rolled in and suspended the match for two hours.
After the break,
Warren Pham picked up a big 7-5, 7-5 win at No. 2 singles. He broke Matthew Plunkett, who had the clinching win for the Spartans against CMS last year, for a 6-5 lead in the second. Pham trailed 15-40 on his serve with a chance to close it out, but came up with a big ace to get it to deuce, and then won the deuce point for the match and a 3-1 Stags lead.
Case Western got one of the points back with a three-set win at No. 5, but Wilson closed out his match in dominant fashion, breaking at love for a 5-3 lead and then serving it out at love for a 6-4, 6-3 win, to give the Stags the 4-2 win and send them on to the finals.
Sibi Raja was the last one left on the court when his match was suspended, down 1-0 in the third set and up 15-0 in the second game. Raja was up 5-4 in the second set with the score 30-30, two points from a possible win up 6-3, 5-4, but ended up going to a third set after the delay.
CMS will be trying for its third national championship on Friday, with the last one coming in 2015, and the first one in 1981. The Stags were in the national championship two years ago in St. Louis, when they fell 5-4 to Chicago after a long weather delay halted the match with CMS on the cusp of winning. The Stags avoided repeating history after Wednesday's delay, and earned the right to play for the national title on Friday, when they will hope to avoid repeating history again, and win the rematch with the Maroons.
