Double the trouble. Double the fun.
In this past week’s double header, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) men’s tennis stampeded over the competition. In their second full day of matches this season, the Stags had success in both doubles and singles, proving the worthiness of their top five national ranking.
On Sunday, Feb. 18, at home in the Biszantz Tennis Center, CMS defeated both Lewis and Clark and Brandeis, 9-0 and 6-1 respectively. This victory run improved their overall record to 3-1.
Doubles competition against Lewis and Clark started off the day strong. On court one, Ian Freer CM ’24 and Matthew Robinson CM ’25 had a decisive 8-3 victory. Simultaneously, the pairs of Advik Mareedu HM ’26 and Warren Pham HM ’26 and Josh Kim CM ’27 and Tarm Rojanasoonthon CM ’25 both won 8-4.
The Stags continued this winning streak with victories against the Pioneers in all six singles matches, only allowing only one set go to tiebreaker points and keeping their slate clean. Three of these wins came from fawns Kim, Anirudh Reddy CM ’27 and Amar Kumar CM ’27.
Kim expressed excitement for his performance in his collegiate debut. He emphasized the motivation he gets from his teammates.
“It was my first match as a Stag, so I was really excited and nervous at the same time,” Kim said. “I think I dealt with it pretty well. The important piece is enjoying every moment that you are out on the court and cherishing it. You are out there wanting to win for your teammates so that is a big thing.”
Reigning ITA West Region Champion, Mareedu credited the team’s positive culture and strong work ethic to their coach.
“[Coach Settles] has been emphasizing discipline and keeping a solid check and making sure we are locked in for every match regardless of whether we think it is going to be easy or not,” Mareedu said.
Their matchup against Brandeis proved the necessity of this mindset. Suffering an early rough patch, the Stags fell short in two of the three doubles matches. However, the team of Freer and Robinson came in clutch, narrowly winning the match 7-6 after edging out Brandeis in a 9-7 tiebreaker victory.
In singles, CMS looked to rebound from their shortcomings in doubles. CMS dominated the first four singles matches, not playing a single tie breaker. The remaining two games with Rojanasoothon and Robinson were harder won, but in the end the Stags pulled ahead.
CMS had their discipline on full display on court six. Early in the first set, Rojanasoothon found himself down two to five in the first set. However, he said a change in mentality was the catalyst that turned the game around.
“As things went on, I focused on my gameplan more than what was happening on the court,” Rojanasoothon said. “[I started] trying to concentrate on the little things, trying to keep the ball back and forth, trying to keep the rhythm going.”
With a newfound focus and strong and calculated forehand and backhand strokes, Rojanasoothon came back to win the first set seven to six, winning the tie breaker points seven to two. Rojanasoonthon finished the singles game taking the first set with seven to six in the and followed by a dominant six to two victory.
He said support from teammates was essential for his comeback victory.
“Our team has a lot of passion and we support each other a lot,” Rojanasoothon said. “It really showed in today’s match. It really changed the way some matches went because all the guys on the sideline really made a big impact on how the momentum was going in each game.”
Through teammates support and mental tenacity, CMS found their groove and displayed grit and discipline with Rojanasoonthon and Robinson making comebacks on courts six and three respectively.
Looking forward, CMS has bigger goals than this week’s win. According to Mareedu, the team is eyeing Division III’s biggest prize, the national championship.
“A goal for the entire team is to hopefully win a national championship at the end of the year,” Mareedu said.
The Stags came incredibly close to achieving that goal last season, but fell just short, losing in the Final Four of the DIII tournament to Tufts 5-4. Kim echoed Mareedu’s desire, highlighting the team’s faith in themselves to take home the trophy.
“We all know that we are capable of it,”Kim said. “We are going to work as hard as humanly possible. As Matt Robinson says, ‘Get the job done.’”
The Stags will attempt to stake their claim atop the national rankings in another out of region matchup against Trinity Texas followed by a number of elite programs from the East Coast starting Friday, Feb. 23 at the ITA Division III National Team Indoors.
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