Box Score MAYFIELD, Ohio (April 19, 2024) – Just two days after achieving the highest national ranking in program history, the No. 5 Denison University men's tennis team was put to the test against No. 4-ranked Case Western Reserve University on Friday, but in the end, the Big Red were defeated by a final score of 7-2 against the Spartans.
Notable Results:
Doubles
- Denison won the first match with Zachary Portnoy and Andy Mackler winning 8-2 over Yuraj Narang and Daniel French at No. 3 doubles.
- At No. 1 doubles, Colin Gramley and Ethan Green fell 8-3 against Vishwa Aduru and Diego Maza, the second-ranked doubles pair in the Central Region.
- At No. 2 doubles, Jacob Patterson and Kael Shah fell 8-4 against Sahil Dayal and Anmay Devaraj, the 10th-ranked pair in the region.
Singles
- At No. 3 singles, Green fell 6-2, 6-1 against Michael Sutanto, the No. 19-ranked singles player in the Central Region, making it a 3-1 CWRU lead.
- Portnoy fell 7-5, 6-3 to Maza at No. 5 singles, making it 4-2 Spartans.
- Denison's lone win in singles came from Patterson with a 7-5, 6-3 decision over Aduru, the 11th-ranked singles player in the region, at No. 2 singles.
- The clinching match for Case was a 7-5, 6-4 win for Casey Hishinuma over Mackler at No. 4 singles.
- The final two matches each went to three sets, and Denison came up short in both after winning the first set. Shah fell 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Ajay Mahenthiran, the third-ranked player in the region, at No. 1 singles while Gramley lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 against Devaraj at No. 6 singles.
Team Records:
- No. 5 Denison falls to 13-4 overall, sees its eight-match winning streak come to an end, and falls to 9-3 on the road and 6-3 against fellow nationally-ranked teams so far this season.
- No. 4 Case improves to 22-4 overall, 8-0 at home and 10-2 against nationally-ranked teams.
Record Book Watch:
Singles-Season Doubles Wins:
- With his 25th doubles win of the season, Mackler (25-2) is now tied for third in doubles wins in one season. The record is 28 doubles wins set by Tim Ciancola in 2022.
Single-Season Combined Wins:
- Mackler (48-5) is still second in combined wins in one season. The record is 55 set by Cianciola in 2022.
Next Up: Denison's busy final weekend of the regular season with continue with three more matches over the next two days. The Big Red will host Wabash College at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, before wrapping up North Coast Athletic Conference action against No. 47 DePauw University (12 p.m.) and then also hosting Otterbein University (3 p.m.) in nonconference action on Sunday, April 21. DePauw is currently 12-6 overall and 5-0 in the NCAC, and is Denison's last threat in the race for the NCAC Championship.
