CMS Women's Tennis Earns SCIAC Title for 10th Straight Season with 5-3 Win over Pomona-Pitzer

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Nikolina Batoshvili won a second-set tiebreaker at No. 6 singles (6-2, 7-6) for the clinching point as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team defeated Pomona-Pitzer 5-3 in the SCIAC Championship match on Saturday at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

The win was the 18th in a row for CMS, which improves to 22-1 on the season since falling to Chicago at the ITA Indoor Championships in February. CMS is 20-0 outdoors this season, and has lost only once outside since 2020, which came in the regular season last year to Pomona-Pitzer at Biszantz, a loss which it avenged in the SCIAC Finals. 

CMS will earn the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships for the 10th year in a row, dating back to 2012 (missing two seasons due to the pandemic). The Athenas finished second last year in the regular season for the only time during that stretch, but earned the automatic bid by winning the SCIAC Postseason Tournament. 

The Athenas took a 2-1 lead after doubles, with Sena Selby and Katherine Wurster providing the swing point at No. 2 with an 8-5 win. Ella Brissett and Lindsay Eisenman took an 8-2 win at No. 3, but the Sagehens were able to pull even with an 8-5 win at No. 1. 

Brissett broke a 2-2 tie with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles, and Audrey Yoon had a dominant second set in defeating Nina Ye 7-6, 6-0 at No. 3 to give the Athenas a 4-2 lead. Angie Zhou took a close battle with Wurster at No. 1 (7-6, 6-4) to close the deficit to 4-3, leaving Chulani and Batoshvili left at No. 2 and No. 6, respectively. 

Chulani dropped the opening set 7-5, but responded for a split by winning the final two games of the second set for a 6-3 win to force it to a third. She was up 2-1 in the third, when Batoshvili went into her tiebreaker after winning games trailing 5-4 and 6-5 to Janie Marcus. Batsohvili then earned the tiebreaker win to clinch the title and send the Athenas on to the NCAA Division III Championships with their winning streak in tact. 

CMS will find out its location and opponent for the opening round when the selections are announced on Monday.