CMS Women's Tennis Drops Close Battle to Emory in ITA Indoor Semifinals

DANVILLE, Ky. - Sydney Lee won at both No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles, but the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team came up just short in a closely-contested battle with Emory 6-3 at the ITA Indoor National semifinals on Saturday.

The loss was the first of the year for CMS, which slips to 5-1 overall, and its first in a dual match since the 2019 national championship against Wesleyan. The Athenas defeated Emory in the 2020 ITA Indoor championship 5-4, and also defeated Emory for the 2018 NCAA national title at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. 

Sydney Lee and Gabby Lee took a dominant 8-2 win in doubles, but the Eagles were able to take a 2-1 lead after earning an 8-7 tiebreaker win at No. 2 for the swing point. Four of the six singles matches then went to three sets, as the two teams showed early in the season that they are evenly matched. Lee prevailed in her third set at No. 2 for a 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 win, while Audrey Yoon earned a straight-set win at No. 5 (7-5, 6-4). 

Crystal Juan came out of the chute with a terrific first set at No. 1 singles, taking it 6-1, but Eliza McPherron was able to regroup and take the next two sets 6-3, 6-3 for the Eagles. Nikolina Batsohvili battled back to split at No. 4, but fell in a close one to Ana Cristina Perez 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. Devon Wolfe also went three sets at No. 6, bouncing back for a 6-3 win in the second after dropping the first, but Alexa Goetz was able to take the third set 6-4. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow when it meets cross-street rival Pomona-Pitzer over 2000 miles from campus. The Sagehens also had a close semifinal defeat, falling 5-4 to Chicago on Saturday.