The Bulldog duo of seniors Jeff Casserd (Bellevue, WA) and Cameron Spearman (Laguna Niguel, CA) teamed up to take down Denison University (OH) earlier today in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Individual Championships at the Biszants Family Tennis Center and Pauley Tennis Complex in Claremont. The tandem now advances to the quarterfinals of the tournament, garnering Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-America laurels.

Casserd and Spearman fell to Denison's duo of Tyler Cempre and Matt McErlean in the early goings, dropping the first set 2-6.

However, Redlands rebounded immediately by flipping the score to win the second, 6-2.

In a real nail-bitter, the Bulldog partners finally finished off The Big Red opponents with a dramatic 7-6 victory in the third and final set. Spearman came up clutch for the Maroon and Gray, saving four match points off of his serve.

The Redlands pair competes in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Amherst College (MA). The Lord Jeffs will send out Moritz Koeing and Wes Waterman to face off with Casserd and Spearman.   

Individually, Spearman competed in singles play, losing to Andrew Guzick of Vassar College (NY) with scores of 4-6 and 2-6.

For complete information about the 2011 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Individual Championships please visit http://www.ncaa.com/sports/tennis-men/d3