SAINT PETER, Minn. — After upsetting the 2022 national champions UChicago in last weekend’s NCAA Regional Championship, the Gustavus men’s tennis team is up for another big challenge in its NCAA Elite Eight matchup. The Gusties are set to face nationally-ranked No. 1 Case Western Reserve University, winners of the 2023 ITA Indoor Nationals, with first serve slotted for 8 a.m. CDT on Saturday. The Gusties will face the Spartans at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Campus in Orlando Fla., with the first quarterfinal match time of the day.
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The Gusties advanced as one of eight teams to win their regional bracket. Other competitors in the field include WashU, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Tufts, Emory, and Case Western. All four quarterfinal matches will be played Friday morning, with the winners advancing to the semifinal Monday. The final two teams will meet for the national championship match on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
SCOUTING THE GUSTIES
The Gusties head to Orlando with a 26-10 overall record and No. 13 national ranking. In the NCAA tournament so far, the Gusties defeated UW-Whitewater 5-1 to advance to the Regional Championship, defeating UChicago in a 5-4 thriller. The Gusties return to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2017, a year in which they also upset the University of Chicago 5-4 in the regional round.
The Gusties took a 2-1 lead over Chicago to start the match, getting doubles wins from the pairs of Nick Aney (Sr., Rochester) and Daniel Fouchier (Sr., Nootdorp, Netherlands) and Alex Budde (Sr., Menomonee Falls, Wis.) and Gage Gohl (Fy., Sioux Falls, S.D.). In the singles, Rafael Costa (So., Sao Paulo, Brazil) won at No. 6 and Marco Siviero (So., Sao Miguel de Oeste, Brazil) won at No. 2, leaving the last point to Aney, who clinched it for the Gusties in a dramatic come-from-behind set three victory.
Aney, Siviero, and Fouchier are all ranked in the NCAA’s regional singles breakdown, with Aney holding a No. 2 ranking, Siviero at No. 5, and Fouchier in eighth. Aney and Fouchier hold the top spot in the regional doubles ranking, while Budde and Gohl find themselves ranked sixth in the region heading into this weekend.
The Gusties have faced quarterfinal qualifiers Emory and C-M-S already this season, falling to Emory 5-3 at the ITA Indoor Nationals, and meeting the Stags twice so far, losing 4-3 and 7-2.
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SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
The Spartans earned their quarterfinal spot following a 5-0 victory over Kalamazoo to start NCAA play and a 5-1 win over No. 14 Denison. The Spartans boast an overall record of 30-4 this season, including 14 wins over nationally-ranked opponents. Case Western earned an automatic bid from the University Athletic Association, winning the program’s first ever title.
James Hopper and Vishwa Aduru are the Spartans’ season leaders, with Hopper owning a singles record of 23-3 in the No. 1 spot and Aduru a record of 18-7 at No. 2. The two have compiled a 24-2 record in the doubles together, winning their last 19 matches. Hopper is the top-ranked singles player in his region, according to both the ITA and the NCAA, while Aduru sits at No. 14. The pair is the No. 1 doubles team in their region, and have both earned a spot in the national individual competition for both singles and doubles.
ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS