Nicole Tan Captures Google Cloud Academic All-America Honors for CMS Women's Tennis

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Junior Nicole Tan, who has been a key part of a national championship as a sophomore and a runner-up finish this season for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team, earned Google Cloud Academic All-America At-Large Third Team honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America, the organization announced today.

Tan, a neuroscience major at Claremont McKenna with a 3.81 GPA, ended this season by reaching the national championship matches in both the team competition and the individual doubles competition. She helped the Athenas to a 27-2 record and a No. 2 final national ranking, after CMS reached the NCAA finals with wins over Carnegie Mellon and Middlebury in the quarterfinals and semifinals, before dropping a tight 5-4 championship match to Wesleyan. 

Tan was then was part of an all-CMS NCAA doubles championship on May 26, when she and freshmen doubles partner Sarah Bahsoun made the NCAA field as an alternate, and then advanced all the way to the final round before falling to teammates Catherine Allen and Caroline Cox in the championship. Tan and Bahsoun, who played No. 2 doubles for the Athenas this season, defeated the No. 1 doubles teams from Wesleyan and Middlebury to reach the final match, where they played a three-setter against Cox and Allen, the No. 1 doubles team for CMS. 

The All-CMS doubles championship marked the first time that the same program had both doubles finalists in the NCAA Division III Championship since Gustavus Adolphus played each other in the finals match in 2005. When Tan and Bahsoun advanced, it also guaranteed the Athenas their first ever national champions in doubles, joining Kristin Lim (2011, singles) and the 2018 team on the program's list of national champions. Tan also had a runner-up finish in doubles as a freshman in 2017, the fourth time that the Athenas had finished second in the event.  

Individually, Tan finished the 2018-19 season ranked No. 2 in doubles and No. 40 in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, while earning All-America honors in doubles, the fifth time in her career that she has earned All-America distinction (three in doubles, two in singles). A year ago, she played No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for CMS on the way to winning the program's first-ever national championship. She now has a career record of 122-25, including 51-17 in singles and 71-18 in doubles over her first three seasons. 

The Google Cloud Academic All-America At Large team combines all of the sports which don't have their own separate Academic All-America teams (soccer, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, and cross country/track and field). In addition to competing against other tennis players, Tan was joined on the three At Large teams by athletes from field hockey, swimming, lacrosse, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, skiing and water polo.