Women's Tennis Sweeps Their Way to Regional Final
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team advanced to the Regional Championship in the NCAA Tournament with a 5-0 victory over the No. 27 Whitman Blues on Friday afternoon. The Athenas swept their way through doubles play before clinching the first two singles matches to earn the 5-0 victory.
CMS made quick work of the Blues in doubles play, winning all three matches by scores of 8-2. Lindsay Brown (CMC) and Nicole Tan (CMC) teamed up at the top doubles match to earn a convincing win. For Catherine Allen (SC) and Caroline Cox (CMC) it was much of the same at No. 2 doubles. Kyla Scott (HMC) and Juliette Martin (CMC) followed suit with and 8-2 victory to head into singles play with a convincing 3-0 lead.
Needing only two singles matches to go their way to advance, the Athenas won the first set on all six singles courts. In four of the six singles matches, the Blues earned one game or less. While Lindsay Brown dropped three games in the opening set, she was the Athena off the court, earning a point with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Whitman's Andrea Gu on court two.
After Brown's victory, it was a race to see who would win the final point for CMS. Catherine Allen, Rebecca Berger (CMC), and Anastasia Bryan-Ajania (SC) all won their first set and had five games to their name in the second set. It was Bran-Ajania that was the first of the trio to finish off her opponent, earning a 6-0, 6-2 victory at No. 6 singles to clinch the match and advance the Athenas in the Tournament.
The Second Round victory moves CMS into the Regional Championship against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. The Athenas and Sagehens have met twice already this season with CMS earning an 8-1 victory and a 5-0 decision. The second meeting coming just last weekend in the SCIAC Championship match.