The No. 8 ranked Emory University men's tennis team saw its season come to a close Tuesday afternoon as the Eagles fell 4-1 to No. 2 ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the national quarterfinals at the Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Eagles' campaign ends with a 14-11 overall record after having made the Elite Eight for the 34th consecutive season. CMS improves to 33-1 with the win and advances to the national semifinals to face Case Western Reserve.
Emory looked to upend the red-hot Stags with a strong start to the match where the Eagles claimed the doubles point. EU dropped court three by a 7-5 margin but were able to seize wins on the top two courts with senior John Lasanajak and Daniel Kim winning 6-4 on court two while the sophomore tandem of Ruilin Feng and Ajay Kartik provided the clinching win on court one with 7-6 (3) tiebreaker verdict.
CMS however was able to flip the script in singles competition as it closed out the match with straight set wins on courts one, two, five and six.
The Stags leveled the score at 1-1 as Advik Mareedu topped Feng on the top court 6-1, 6-1 and moved ahead with a 6-2, 6-4 decision over freshman Stefan Karatosic on court five. The clinching points came from courts two and six where senior Dean Kamenev fell 6-7 (4), 3-6) and sophomore Sammy Nieder dropped 6-7 (1), 4-6.
When play concluded, Kim was through two sets on court three 6-4, 3-6 and Kartik was battling back from a first set setback 4-6, 5-4.
With the team competition finished for the Eagles, the duo of Feng and Kartik are set to represent the team later this week at the NCAA Individual Championships with Feng playing in the singles draw and the tandem playing together in the doubles bracket. The NCAA Individual Championships are slated to get underway on Saturday, May 23 at the Champions Tennis Club.
