Denison men's tennis falls to #9 CWRU in opener

Jack Bulger fell in three sets against CWRU.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Denison men's tennis suffered an 8-1 loss on Sunday against No. 9 Case Western Reserve University to open the 2021 season.

Opening with doubles, the Spartans duo of James Hopper and Matthew Chen, ranked 1st nationally in doubles, took an early advantage, defeating Jack Bulger and Marc-Lennart Harms 8-2. The Big Red responded back in No. 2 doubles with Tim Cianciola and Patrick McGuigan taking down CWRU's Neil Mabee and Anthony Kanam by a score of 8-7. In the final doubles match, Denison's Andy Mackler and Milan Gonela fell to Jonathan Powell and Chaitanya Aduru, 8-6.
In singles, Cianciola took Hopper, ranked 7th nationally, to three sets with Hopper coming out victorious, 6-7, 6-2, 11-9. CWRU's Vishwa Aduru defeated Harms in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2. Bulger took Chen to a third set, but Chen came out on top, 6-2, 6-7, 10-6.
Denison's Jacob Dennen was defeated by Powell, 6-0, 6-1. Mackler lost to Aduru by the same score. To close out singles action, Gonela fell to Kanam, 6-1, 6-0.