CMS women's tennis All-Americans

CMS Women's Tennis Has Five Players Earn ITA All-America Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Five members of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team officially earned All-America honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association this afternoon, including honors in both singles and doubles for senior Catherine Allen and first-year Justine Leong.

In addition to the singles/doubles sweep from Allen and Leong, who won the ITA Division III national title while playing together in the fall, junior Caroline Cox, sophomore Crystal Juan and first-year Anna Kern also earned All-America distinction in doubles. 



Leong and Allen finished ranked 1-2 in the nation in singles in the final ITA poll which was released last week, while Allen and Cox were ranked as the No. 1 doubles team in the nation. Cox joined Allen in sweeping both the ITA Cup national title in the fall and the NCAA Division III Doubles Championships in the spring last year, but studied abroad in the fall, while Allen won another national title playing with Leong. 

Leong finished her rookie season with a 20-1 singles record, with the only defeat coming in the second round of the ITA Fall Nationals against Jada Hart of UCLA. Leong advanced in that tournament with a first-round win against Janice Shin of Stanford, who clinched the Division I national championship last year for the Cardinal in a win over Georgia in the finals. She had a combined 41-3 record in both singles and doubles, and was undefeated against Division III competition, with her only defeats coming to UCLA (singles), Army (doubles) and Azusa Pacific (doubles). 

Allen, meanwhile, ended the year 16-1 in singles with the only defeat coming to Leong in the ITA West Cup Regional Championship match, when Allen retired after dropping the first set with an injury. Her win total this year included the clincher against Emory in a 5-4 win in the ITA Indoor Championship match in March, when she prevailed 7-5 in the third set. She also had a 20-3 doubles record this year, ending her career with 100 doubles wins and a combined doubles and singles record of 190-27.

Cox didn't skip a beat after missing the fall season, returning to record a perfect 11-0 record in singles in the spring, including a key win in the Emory match. She was also 8-2 in doubles for a combined 19-2 record, and picked up the 100th combined win of her career as only a junior. 

Juan and Kern earned their All-America honors in the fall by advancing all the way to the semifinals of the ITA Cup national tournament in Rome, Georgia. They reached the finals of the ITA West Regionals, where they fell to Allen and Leong, but still earned the region's second invitation to the ITA Cup and came through with a pair of wins to reach the national semifinals and earn All-America distinction. Juan ended the year playing with Leong in doubles, earning the No. 12 final ranking from the ITA, and had a 15-3 record, while Kern ended with a 13-2 doubles mark (with one of the defeats to her teammates). 

CMS ended the year ranked No. 1 in the nation in Division III with a 14-0 record, and had its eyes focused on a run at another national title after winning the program's first in 2018. Last year, the Athenas were runner-up to Wesleyan (Conn.) after a 5-4 defeat in the finals.