Six Athenas Advance to ITA West Region Women's Tennis Quarterfinals

Full Brackets/Results

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team has six of the eight players who advanced to the ITA West Region Quarterfinals by winning the first two rounds on Friday afternoon at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

Tomorrow's 12:30 p.m. quarterfinal round, in fact, will feature two head-to-head match-ups between CMS teammates, as senior Madison Shea will take on junior Rebecca Berger (who defeated teammate Crystal Juan in the second round) in one quarterfinal, while senior Catherine Allen will face sophomore Sydney Lee (who defeated Athena teammate Devon Wolfe in the second round) in one of the others.

Senior Nicole Tan, meanwhile, who also needed to defeat a teammate in the second round, edging first-year Gabby Lee in three sets (6-3, 5-7, 6-2), will meet Pomona-Pitzer's Maria Lyven. First-year Justine Leong is the sixth quarterfinalist for CMS and will take on Georgia Ryan of the Sagehens.

Leong had the most dominant opening day for CMS, taking a 6-0, 6-0 win in her opening round and a 6-0, 6-1 win in the second round to breeze through to the quarterfinals. Allen won both of her matches by the identical scores of 6-2, 6-0 to get through to the quarterfinals. 

Shea advanced through as an unseeded entrant, as she picked up a 6-2, 6-2 win in the first round and then met Anna Tifrea of Caltech, who knocked off No. 5 seed Janie Marcus of Pomona-Pitzer. Shea and Tifrea had a tight battle, but Shea was able to emerge with the 6-4, 7-5 win. 

CMS also had a strong showing in the first round of doubles, with all seven teams advancing. Allen and Leong earned an 8-0 win as the No. 1 seed to start their dominant days in both singles and doubles, while first-year Anna Kern and Juan  also teamed for an 8-0 win.

Senior Lauren Yamagami and sophomore Georgia Tuckerman had a big win to defeat the No. 5 seed from Redlands in a tiebreaker, while Wolfe and senior Anastasia Bryan-Ajania also won in a tiebreaker to move on to the Round of 16. 

Berger and Gabby Lee earned an 8-3 win in their opening match, while Sydney Lee and Shea, the tournament's No. 3 seed, advanced with an 8-1 win. Tan and sophomore Sarah Bahsoun, the No. 2 seed, moved on with an 8-2 win in their opening-round match. 

Tuckerman and Yamagami also had success in singles in the B Flight of the ITA Regionals, with Tuckerman picking up a 6-2, 6-2 win in the opening round and then moving on to the quarterfinals with a 3-6, 6-1, 12-10 win in the Round of 16. Yamagami had a similar match in her opening round, winning 4-6, 7-5, 12-10 and moved on to the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-3 win. 

Doubles will get things started tomorrow for the Athenas at 10 a.m., with singles beginning at 12:30 p.m. with the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinal round at 4 p.m.