ITA West Regionals swept by Athenas as Kuosman and Ward capture titles

CLAREMONT, Calif. – It's been two years since the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team had representatives win both the singles and doubles titles of the USTA/ITA Small College West Regional Championships. The short streak of CMS not claiming an ITA regional winner ended over the weekend as junior Caroline Ward won the singles tournament, and then teamed with sophomore Katie Kuosman to win the doubles tournament. CMS last swept the Regionals in 2012 when Ward and Kristin Lim won the regional in doubles and Lim won the singles title. In 2013, CMS had representatives in the finals of both singles and doubles, but were knocked out in the finals. The 2014 regionals hosted by Pomona-Pitzer from Sept. 26-28 however proved to be a different story for CMS.

In the singles tournament, second-seeded Ward won five matches over three days to earn the West Region title. In the singles final against top-seeded Andrea Madrigal on Sept. 28, Ward came back to win in a tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (4). Against Madrigal, Ward was down 5-2 in the third set and saved four match points to get the win. Between Ward and Madrigal, the two players fought off nine match points.

In the doubles tournament, the top-seeded team of Ward and Kuosman defeated second-seeded Lea Lynn Yen and Grace Hruska of Pomona-Pitzer 6-2, 7-6 (5). After a bye in the first round, the duo won five matches en route to the regional title. It was the third-straight year for Ward in the doubles finals of the West Regionals, also winning in 2012 as a freshman. In the semifinals, they defeated fourth-seeded Laina Matsuda and Bridget Etchegaray 8-3 to advance to the championship match.

Next up for Ward and Kuosman is the Small College Nationals, Oct 9-11 in Sumter, S.C.

In addition to the play of Kuosman and Ward, the Athenas were well represented across the board. The Athenas had 10 singles participants and five doubles teams. Of the eight participants in the singles quarterfinals, five were from CMS (Kuosman, Ward, Bria Smith, Sarah Kukino and Lindsay Brown). Kuosman defeated Smith 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semifinals while Ward advanced to the semis with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Brown. In the round of 16, Brown upset sixth-seeded Laina Matuda of La Verne 6-4, 6-4.

In singles consolation play, CMS' Lauren Livingston won the consolation bracket which included those who were knocked out of the championships in the first round, while Kyla Scott won the consolation bracket for those who were knocked out of the championships in the second round.

In doubles, CMS had two of the four semifinal teams and three of the eight quarterfinal teams. Kukino and Scott joined Ward and Kuosman in the semifinals for CMS with an 8-3 win over Pomona-Pitzer's Emily Kuo and Emily Chen. Smith and Brown were the third doubles team for CMS to reach the quarterfinals.

Singles Draws (Final)
Doubles Draws (Final)
Singles Consolation (Final)
Doubles Consolation (Final)

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