CMS Women's Tennis Falls to Chicago at ITA Indoor Nationals

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. - Sena Selby and Katherine Wurster came back to win an 8-7 match at No. 3 doubles to give the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team some momentum heading into singles, but Chicago was able to earn three wins in singles to earn a 5-1 win over the Athenas on Sunday in the championship match of the ITA Indoor Nationals at Sewanee.

Top-ranked CMS suffers its first loss of the season as it falls to 4-1, while second-ranked Chicago moves to 8-0.

Doubles was tight the whole way, as CMS led on all three courts early, but Chicago was able to turn the tide and take an 8-5 win at No. 2 and an 8-6 win at No. 1. Selby and Wurster were down 6-4 at No. 3, but battled back to pull even at 7-7 and then won the first five points of the tiebreaker before finishing it off 7-3. 

CMS was ahead on the three unfinished courts, including Audrey Yoon, who had a 6-0, 5-4 lead at No. 2. Alisha Chulani was also in the middle of a tight battle with the No. 1 ranked player in the nation, Slywia Mikos, at No. 1 singles and had a 6-4, 1-6, 2-1 advantage in the third. Nikolina Batoshvili was up a set (6-2) at No. 5 and trailed 5-4 in the second. 

However, Brooke Pedersen was able to get the clinch with a tight 7-5, 6-4 win over Selby at No. 4, after Nicole Geller won at No. 3 and Claudia Ng won at No. 6. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday, when it hosts Swarthmore at the Claremont Club at 11:30 a.m., and Christopher Newport at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center at 3:30 p.m.