The No. 12 ranked Emory University men's tennis team earned a decisive victory Saturday night as the Eagles defeated No. 6 Case Western Reserve University, 6-1, at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club in Mayfield, Ohio.
The Eagles rode the strength of their singles play to a fifth consecutive win, improving to 9-5 on the season while dropping their UAA counterpart to 19-5 overall.
CWRU secured the match's opening point with the doubles win by taking matches on courts one and three. The senior duo of Dean Kamenev and John Lasanajak avoided the sweep though with their 6-2 win on court two.
After falling at the No. 1 doubles position, sophomores Ruilin Feng and Ajay Kartik helped switch around the momentum as singles got underway as they put forth a pair of wins on courts one and four to push the Eagles ahead. Feng dominated at the No. 1 spot with his 6-1, 6-1 verdict while Kartik was one of four Eagles to go to a third set as he won 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 on four.
Emory's clinching points came from the bottom of the lineup as freshmen Matthew Johnstone and Stefan Karatosic notching sealing wins for the Eagles. Johnstone was a straight-set winner of court five 7-6 (8), 6-2 while Karatosic brought in a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 result on six.
Kamenev and freshman Daniel Kim rounded out the Emory singles sweep on courts two and three with both matches needing three sets to decide a winner. Kamenev rallied from one set down to win 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) on two and on court three, Kim did the same as he came back from a 2-6 hole to close out his win 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Emory will have another top 10 foe on deck Sunday morning as the team is slated to take on No. 5 Denison University at the Mayfield Club starting at 10:00 AM.
