Batoshvili, Chulani Advance to NCAA Division III Women's Doubles Quarterfinal Round

ORLANDO, Fla. - Nikolina Batoshvili and Alisha Chulani got off to a slow start, fighting off two set points in the first set, but turned it on with a 7-0 win in the tiebreaker, and then went on to capture a 7-6, 6-2 win over MIT in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Women's Doubles Championship on Friday afternoon at the USTA National Campus.

In singles, Crystal Juan and Sydney Lee both won their opening round matches in the morning, but dropped their second matches in the afternoon in the Round of 16. 

The Athenas were coming off winning the team national championship on Wednesday 5-1 over Chicago, and had the challenging task of refocusing on their individual competitions after just a one-day layoff. Batoshvili and Chulani, in fact, faced the same MIT doubles team of Kimberly Liao and Yuka Perera that it defeated 8-3 on Monday in the NCAA Quarterfinals, giving Liao and Perera four days to focus on a rematch, while the Athena duo was locked in on the team competition.

The Engineer duo took advantage of the time off and had two chances to win the first set leading 5-4, but CMS was able to fight off two break points to hold and get it into a tiebreaker. Once in the tieberaker, the Athenas stepped up, and rattled off seven points in a row for the shutout and a 1-0 lead. 

That momentum carried into the second set, as Batoshvili and Chulani roared out to a 5-1 lead. The Engineers broke serve to stay in the match for one last changeover, but CMS broke right back to finish off the match with a 6-2 win in the second. 

Juan opened up the singles competition with a three-set win over Shianna Guo of Chicago (6-3, 4-6, 6-4), seeing the two teams square off again that played in the national championship match (although they didn't play each other, as Juan was at No. 1 singles, and Guo played at No. 2). 

Lee, meanwhile, faced Hannah Kassaie of Case Western in a rematch of the NCAA Regional Finals from two weeks ago, although similarly, Lee played at No. 2 for the Athenas, and Kassaie at No. 1.  Lee showed no championship hangover effects as she roared out to a 6-1 win in the first set, and then battled through a tighter second set for a 6-4 win to move on the Round of 16. 

The second round in the afternoon saw both Athenas see their seasons, and careers, come to an end as they faced talented, and well-rested, opponents. Lee fell 6-4, 6-1 to Elle Christensen of Tufts, and Crystal Juan dropped a 6-4, 6-3 decision to Josephine Libby of Rochester, both of whom were ranked third in singles in their respective regions. Christensen last played in a tough 5-4 loss to Amherst in the regional finals 12 days ago, while Libby has been idle since the UAA Championships on April 24. Bittersweet is a term often used to describe a positive development which is marred by something negative, so you might say their singles defeats were "sweetbitter" -- i.e., the exact opposite, after winning a national championship just two days ago. 

Batoshvili and Chulani will next meet Erika Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa of Williams in tomorrow's quarterfinal round. The duos faced each other on March 26 in a dual match at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, where Batoshvili and Chulani earned an 8-7 win (7-4 in the tiebreaker), helping CMS to a 6-3 team win.