Women’s Tennis NCAA Regional preview
CLAREMONT, Calif. – The No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team faces a tough regional field in the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament. CMS is joined by four teams, three of which are ranked in the top-25 nationally. The Claremont Regional in the NCAA Tournament will be played at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center May 12-14.
East Texas Baptist University faces Whitman College in a First Round match on May 12 at 2 p.m. The winner advances to take on CMS on May 13 at 10 a.m. On the other side of the draw, Pomona-Pitzer and Trinity University (TX) square off in another Second Round match.
ETBU enters this year's regional unranked, but making the program's first ever appearance in the national tournament. The Tigers (18-4) won the American Southwest Conference with the big 5-3 upset of Texas-Tyler in the championship match. At No. 5 singles, Mullika Seekieo clinched the win for the Tigers while Tiffany Stankiewicz was named the MVP after an undefeated performance in the tournament.
ETBU faces No. 23 Whitman in the only First Round match of the weekend. The Blues entered its postseason conference tournament as the second seed and battled back to earn the miraculous 5-3 decision from host and 29th-ranked Linfield College to win their fourth Northwest Conference title in the past five seasons. Whitman is led by Andrea Gu, the conference's Newcomer of the Year, and No. 17 singles player in the region. CMS earned the 9-0 victory over the Blues in early April.
No. 3 Trinity (17-7) earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament with the 5-0 victory over Southwestern (TX) for their sixth consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship. The Tigers have just four losses to Division III opponents this season including CMS in late February. At the beginning of April, Trinity beat ETBU 7-2 and finished off the season with seven straight victories. Liza Southwich is the eighth-ranked singles player in the region, followed by Caroline Kutach at 11th.
No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer (15-7) earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament after falling 5-4 to CMS in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title match. Caroline Casper is the No. 1 singles player in the region while Emily Chen and Maryanne Zhao are ranked No. 2 in doubles. The Sagehens' only losses this season were to top-10 programs.
The Athenas were last season's host and regional champion, beating Pomona-Pitzer 5-3 in the Third Round. This year, CMS (26-0) enters with the only unblemished record in the region after the tight 5-4 win over Pomona-Pitzer for the program's 19th SCIAC Championship. The Athenas make up three of the top five singles players and two of the top three doubles teams in the region. Nicole Tan (CMC) and Lindsay Brown (CMC) are unbeaten by DIII opponents this spring while Catherine Allen (SC) Katie Kuosman (CMC) have just one loss. Singles play is highlighted by Tan, Allen and Kyla Scott (HMC).
By Emily Nordhoff
Sports Information Director
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