CMS Women's Tennis Comes Back to Defeat Pomona-Pitzer 5-4 in NCAA Regional Finals

RICHARDSON, Texas - Lindsay Eisenman and Ella Brissett had a pivotal comeback win at No. 3 doubles and then took the final two singles points in three sets apiece as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team defeated Pomona-Pitzer for the third week in a row, edging the Sagehens 5-4 to win the NCAA Regional title and advance through to nationals in Orlando next week.

Brissett picked up the clincher after dropping the first set 6-4, closing out the third set with five games in a row for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. With the win, CMS now stands at 24-1 on the season, and has won 20 straight matches since falling to Chicago at the ITA Indoor Championships in February, with Pomona-Pitzer the only team in that stretch to take three points from CMS, which it has done three times in the last three weeks.

CMS came in ranked No. 2 in the country and Pomona-Pitzer ranked No. 3, but they had to face each other in the Round of 16. The Athenas had just defeated Pomona-Pitzer 5-4 in the regular season finale on April 22, and then 5-3 in the SCIAC Tournament finals on April 29, and had to beat them again for a third time in a row to make it back to Orlando to defend their national title. 

The Athenas were in danger of falling behind 3-0 after doubles, with the Sagehens taking an 8-1 win at No. 1 and an 8-3 win at No. 2. Brissett and Eisenman were down 6-4 and 0-30 at No. 3, but battled back to take a deuce point and get to within 6-5. After winning another deuce point to pull level at 6-6, they were able to take the final two games for an 8-6 win and help swing momentum. 

Pomona-Pitzer earned the first singles point from Angie Zhou at No. 1, but Audrey Yoon was able to answer back with a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 3 to make the overall match score 3-2. Alisha Chulani came back after falling in the first set for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 2 to temporarily tie it, but Pomona-Pitzer picked up a three-set win at No. 5 from Lauren Rha to take a 4-3 lead, meaning that both Eisenman and Brissett had to close out their matches again, after doing so in doubles. 

Eisenman came close to a straight set win, but fell in a second-set tiebreaker 8-6 to Janie Marcus to force it to a third set. She regrouped quickly and took the first two games of the third set, controlling it throughout to came away with a 6-2, 7-6, 6-2 win to level the match 4-4. 

That left it up to Brissett, who has been in big spots, before, clinching the national championship over Chicago a year ago with a 6-4, 6-3 win. She was down 3-1 in the third set, and 15-40 in the fifth game, but won the next two points to get to 3-2. She then seized all the momentum and closed out with five games in a row, winning 19 of the last 22 points, and the final game at love to send CMS through to nationals 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

CMS will advance to the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals in Orlando, when they will meet Amherst on Sunday, May 14. The winner will face either Wesleyan or Emory in the semifinals, while Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins and Middlebury are on the other side of the bracket.