Barry Claims Fourth Straight Division II Men's Championship, Barry Women Reach Another Final; Tufts and Case Western Win 5-4 Battles to Advance to D-III Men's Final; Iyengar and Cordova Earn J100 Titles in Dominican Republic

The pedigree of three-time defending champion Barry was evident the past two days, with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 1 seed Valdosta State 4-1 in the semifinals yesterday and No. 2 seed Columbus State 4-2 tonight in the Division II men's final. The Buccaneers lost the doubles point and the first singles match decided at line 5, but Barry began working its way back, with straight-sets wins at lines 6 and 3. A 7-5, 7-5 win by Arnau Rodriguez at line 4 made it 3-2 Barry and it wasn't long before the title was defended, with Alejandro Palacios coming back to beat Columbus State's Javier Cueto Ramos 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 at line 2.

It's the seventh title overall for Barry, located in Miami Shores Florida, all of them since 2010. They also have seven runner-up finishes. The box score can be found here.

The Barry women will be playing for their sixth consecutive women's D-II title Tuesday, after cruising past No. 4 seed Flagler 4-0 in two hours. The five-time defending champions dropped just seven games total in the three singles positions where they earned their points: lines 1, 4 and 6. Barry will face No. 2 seed Nova Southeastern, who beat No. 3 seed Hawaii Pacific 4-2.

The men's NCAA D-III semifinals brought the drama this afternoon in Lake Nona, as both were decided by 5-4 scores. Case Western's Vishwa Aduru saved a match point in the third set, then won a deciding tiebreaker to earn Case Western a 5-4 victory over Middlebury and a berth in their third straight final.

Aduru, who trailed Aidan Harris 6-4, 4-1 at line 2 singles, came up with a good serve to save a match point on a deciding point at 3-5 in the third set, with the score tied 4-4.

The Florida heat and the nearly four-hour duration of the match got to both players, with Harris taking a medical time out at 5-all, after getting broken at 15-40 serving for the match. Harris appeared to be cramping in the final few games, and Aduru took a medical timeout at 1-2 in the tiebreaker, getting treatment on his hand. The cameras were glitchy once Aduru had a 5-2 lead, but I believe Harris saved one match point at 6-3, before his forehand landed just long to give Aduru a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) win.

Case Western, who lost to Emory in the 2021 final and Chicago in last year's final, will play Tufts, who escaped with a 5-4 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Tufts will be making the program's first appearance in an NCAA final after reaching the semifinals last year.

Tuesday's schedule will feature the D-II women's final and the D-III men's final, both at 6 p.m.  The D-III women's semifinals, with Chicago facing Middlebury and defending champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps playing Emory, begin at 1 p.m. The finals are at NCAA.com, the semifinals can be found at the Cracked Racquets YouTube channel.

I covered the results of the ITF J60 last week in Plantation in Saturday's post, but, as usual, there were many more titles by American juniors last week on the ITF Junior Circuit, a dozen to be exact.

Maya Iyengar and Francesco Cordova won the singles titles at the ITF J100 in the Dominican Republic, with Iyengar also earning the doubles title.

The 17-year-old Cordova, seeded No. 5, defeated top seed Andrew Delgado 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 for his second ITF Junior Circuit title. 

Iyengar, the No. 2 seed, beat Easter Bowl 18s finalist Aspen Schuman, who was unseeded, 6-4, 6-3 in the final. It's the second ITF Junior Circuit singles title for the 15-year-old Iyengar.

Top seeds Delgado and Cesar Cruz of El Salvador won the boys doubles title, beating No. 6 seeds Marcos Castellanos of Guatemala and Jose David Segovia Perez of Venezuela 7-5, 7-6(2) in the final.

At the J60 in Spain, 15-year-old Keaton Hance won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, beating doubles partner Jack Kennedy 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final. Hance was seeded No. 6 and Kennedy No. 3.  No. 2 seeds Hance and Kennedy had won the doubles title the day before, in an all-US final, beating unseeded Jack Secord and Ford McCollum 6-7(3), 6-4, 10-8. It is the 14-year-old Kennedy's first ITF Junior Circuit title.

At the J60 in Mexico, 16-year-old Shrikeshav Murugesan won his first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the No. 3 seed taking the boys singles championship with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over doubles partner and top seed Diego Herrera Hernandez of Mexico. The pair lost in the doubles final.

The fifth singles title for an American junior came at the J60 in Nicaragua, with 16-year-old Maya Dutta, the top seed, beating unseeded Yasmin Vavrova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Dutta lost only 10 games in her four victories, and now has three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Unseeded Sofia Cedeno and Aida Cedeno won the girls doubles title in Managua defeating No. 2 seeds Alden Russell and Catherine Walker 7-5, 6-4 in the all-US final. No. 4 seeds Malik Trail and his partner Matthew Cizmarik of Canada took the boys doubles, beating top seeds Holland Snell and Lev Seidman 5-7, 6-4, 10-7 in the final. 

Two doubles championships round out the week's collection of titles, with Kase Schinnerer winning the boys doubles at the J60 in Canada with partner Finbar McGarvey of Great Britain. The No. 2 seeds defeated the unseeded Canadian pair of Adam Faragcao and Miko Lapalme 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

At the J100 in Peru, Vessa Turley and Maria Araoz-Gosn won the girls doubles, with the No. 3 seeds beating No. 2 seeds Francesca Maguina Bunikowska of Peru and Antonia Sarria of Chile 1-6, 6-1, 10-4 in the final. It's the second straight doubles title in Peru for Turley, who won last week's J60 in Peru. Turley, who also reach the singles final, now has eight ITF Junior Circuit doubles titles with six different partners.