CMS Women's Tennis Heads to Case Western for NCAA Regionals

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team, fresh off a 5-4 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the SCIAC Championship, will travel for the upcoming NCAA Regionals and head to Case Western, where it get a first-round bye and play a second round match on Friday against the winner of the opening round between Lebanon Valley and SUNY Onenota.

Case Western, which is ranked No. 12 in the country, also received an opening-round bye and will face the winner of the first-round matchup between Denison and Pitt.-Greensburg on Saturday. Denison is ranked No. 24 in the country, while the other three teams are unranked.

The two second round winners will meet in Saturay's regional finals with a chance to move on to the NCAA team championships in Orlando, Florida from March 23-25.

Three SCIAC teams got into the field, with Pomona-Pitzer and Redlands both heading to Trinity (Texas) for their regional. Breaking up the SCIAC teams and having them travel could prove to be beneficial to the league, as it avoids the No. 2 Sagehens and No. 4 Athenas having to play each other in the regionals, while also creating the possibility of two SCIAC teams advancing to nationals.

CMS will head to Case Western with a 22-3 overall record, following its 5-4 win over the Sagehens on Saturday. Crystal Juan provided the clincher at No. 1 singles with a three-set win (6-2 in the third), with Nikolina Batoshvili and Sarah Bahsoun also providing singles wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively. Batoshvili and Alisha Chulani also won a key tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles for a 2-1 lead, while Bahsoun and Devon Wolfe earned an 8-1 win at No. 3 doubles. 

The win marked the ninth SCIAC title in a row for the Athenas, who will be trying to make their tenth straight appearance at nationals (not counting the two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic). CMS won the national title in 2018 and finished as the runner-up in 2019 in its previous two appearances. 

CMS has avenged each of its losses this season. The Athenas dropped a match to Emory at the ITA Indoor Nationals, but won the rematch at home 7-2. Pomona-Pitzer also won the first two meetings this year (the third-place match at ITA Indoors and the regular season meeting), but CMS won the third one in the SCIAC finals. 

To view the complete bracket, head to the following link:

NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship