CMS Women's Tennis Takes 7-0 Shutout Win over UC San Diego

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Justine Leong and Catherine Allen won a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles and then captured wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team earned a 7-0 win over UC San Diego on Saturday afternoon at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

CMS now stands at 3-0 on the year with all three wins coming against Division II opponents, after sweeping two matches at Hawaii Pacific last month, and has won 30 straight home matches in all, dating back to a loss to Emory in the 2018 regular season (which it avenged later that year at home in the national championship). UC San Diego, which fell to the Athenas 4-3 last year in a third-set tiebreaker for the deciding point, opens up its season at 0-1. 

Allen and Leong played together at doubles for the first time since the fall, when they ended up capturing the ITA Division III National Championship. They had the closest of the decisions on the day, but were able to control the tiebreaker 7-1 to come away with the win. 

The match was played by Division II rules with doubles counting for one point instead of three, which meant the tiebreaker didn't affect the team score as the Athenas had already won at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. Junior Caroline Cox and first-year Anna Kern played for the first time together at No. 3 and captured an 8-3 win, while senior Nicole Tan and sophomore Sarah Bahsoun fought off a tough challenge at No. 2 and prevailed late for an 8-5 win to clinch the doubles point. 

Leong made it a 2-0 CMS lead with a quick 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles. She was rolling along, up 6-1, 4-1, but Becky Chou was able to win back to back games for UC San Diego to close to within 4-3. Leong regrouped at the changeover, though, and broke back to close out the match with a 6-3 win in the second set. 

Cox was next to the finish line at No. 6 singles, winning 6-2, 6-2 to improve to 2-0 this season after studying abroad in the fall. Sydney Lee then earned the clinch at No. 5 singles with a 6-3, 6-1 win. 

The Tritons missed their best chance at a point when Valeria Corral retired one game from a win at No. 4 singles, making the score 5-0. Junior Rebecca Berger closed out a hard-fought 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 3, and Allen earned the final point with a 7-6, 6-2 victory at No. 2. 

CMS will be back in action in two weeks when it plays three matches in one day, hosting SCIAC rivals Occidental (10 a.m.) and Whittier (1 p.m.), before closing out the day against San Diego Christian at 7 p.m.