ORLANDO, Fla. — Case Western Reserve University's elite men's tennis program added another chapter to its history on Sunday.
The men's doubles pair of James Hopper and Jonathan Powell defeated Emory's Andrew Esses and Nolan Shah in straight sets to win the NCAA Division III championship. It marks CWRU's second national title in the event, with Eric Klawitter and Christopher Krimbill first doing do back in 2014.
Seeded second in the 16-team bracket, Hopper and Powell needed a 7-6 third-set tiebreaker on Saturday just to get to today's final four. They defeated Moses Hutchinson and Andrew Watson Mary Washington 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the final, where they knocked off Esses and Shah by a reversed score of 6-4, 6-1.
The victory marked the crowning achievement of a banner year for the Spartans, who as a team advanced to the championship round earlier this week before losing to Chicago 5-2. Hopper also competed in the men's singles tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals.
The women's team also had a nice week in Orlando, headlined by the doubles duo of Lily McCloskey and Mayfield grad Hannah Kassaie. The hometown heroes made the quarterfinals before falling in straight sets to Shianna Guo and Sylwia Mikos of Chicago.
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