CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -
Advik Mareedu won by walkover when his opponent withdrew from the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Singles quarterfinal round on Sunday, tying the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps program record for singles wins in a season and moving on to Monday's semifinal round in his request to repeat as national singles champion.
Mareedu was unable to advance in both singles and doubles, as he and
Caleb Settles dropped a three-setter in the NCAA doubles quarterfinals to Trevor Rein and Asher Willenborg of Mary Washington (6-1, 4-6, 3-6).
Mareedu has now tied his own program record for singles wins in a season with 41, improving his record to 41-2 this year, after going 41-1 last season. The semifinals will get underway tomorrow morning, with Mareedu facing Mark Kneiss of Bowdoin, who he defeated in three sets in the regular season this year (6-0, 5-7, 6-2).
If he can get by Kneiss, there will be another potential plot twist. Mareedu avenged one of his two losses this year, which came to Ruilin Feng of Emory in the ITA Cup singles finals in the fall. The two met again in the NCAA team quarterfinals earlier this week, and Mareedu defeated Feng in the rematch.
There is a chance that Mareedu could avenge his other loss this year, which came to Michael Melnikov of Swarthmore at the ITA Indoor Championships in February. Melnikov stayed alive in a three-set win on the other side of the bracket, and will face Andreas Sillaste of Amherst in tomorrow's other semifinal. Last year, his only loss came in a dual against Division II Westmont, in a three-setter when he had two match points get away.
In doubles, Mareedu and Settles started out on fire, taking a 5-0 lead in the first set before Mary Washington got on the board. The Stag duo took the first set 6-1, but fell behind 5-2 in the second. Down 5-3 and 40-15, they fought off three set points to get back on serve, but Rein and Willenborg broke back to get the split.
With the score 2-2 in the third, Mary Washington won three straight deuce points to go ahead 5-2, before Settles and Mareedu won a deuce to stave off a match point and get it to 5-3. The Stags were up 30-15 in the next game, but Rein and Willenborg won three points in a row to take the three-set win.
Mareedu will go for a new program record with his 42nd singles win of the year when the semifinal round gets underway at 10 a.m. local time (7 a.m. Pacific).
