CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Advik Mareedu finished off his illustrious career with the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team by becoming only the third player in Division III men's tennis history to win back-to-back NCAA Singles Championships, earning a 6-3, 6-1 win over Michael Melnikov of Swarthmore in the finals match on Tuesday at the Champions Tennis Club.

With the win, Mareedu caps off his senior season with a 43-2 record in singles, breaking his own mark for singles wins in a season of 41, set last year. He was also 32-7 in doubles this season, setting a new program record for combined wins with 75, surpassing the old mark of 72 set by Warren Wood in 2015.

The only two prior players to win back-to-back NCAA Division III singles championships were Lewis Miller of Kalamazoo in 1991 and 1992, and Matt Seeberger of UC Santa Cruz in 2004 and 2005. Damian Polla of WashU (1995 and 1997) and Toby Clark of Principia (1985 and 1987) also won twice in non-consecutive years.

During NCAA competition, Mareedu also avenged both of his losses this year, which came to Ruilin Feng of Emory in the finals of the ITA Cup singles championship in the fall (6-1, 4-6, 7-5), when he had a match point, and to Melnikov in the quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor Championships in February (6-4, 6-7, 6-4).

Mareedu faced off with Feng in the quarterfinals of the NCAA team championships last week and dominated the rematch, winning 6-1, 6-1 to help the Stags advance through to the finals. He had a similar dominant rematch this time around against Melnikov, although he needed to come back from down 15-40 on his serve to hold at deuce and go up 5-2 in the first set, instead of being back on serve. After Melnikov held, Mareedu won his service game at 40-15 to take a 1-0 lead.

In the second set, Mareedu dropped only one point in three games on his serve, and broke Melnikov three times to put the finishing touches on his championship in dominant fashion. Melnikov was actually up 40-0 on his serve to start the set, but Mareedu won four points in a row to earn his first break.

After his second straight love service game put him up 3-1, Mareedu broke Melnikov on another deuce point to go up 4-1. He then held at 40-15 to go up 5-1, and finished off the match, and his career, with two straight winners, one on his backhand to go up 40-15, and then a forehand crosscourt winner to almost the same spot to end it.

Mareedu went 30-6 in singles in each of his first two seasons, then went 41-1 as a junior and 43-2 as a senior. His only loss as a junior came in a dual against Division II Westmont, when he had two match points, and his only two losses as a senior, he was able to avenge in the postseason. He finished his career with a singles record of 144-15, while helping the Stags reach the NCAA semifinals all four years, including two appearance in the national title match, while never once losing an NCAA Tournament singles match in the team competition in four years.