CMS Women's Tennis Advances to Fourth Straight National Championship Match with 5-1 Win over Emory

ORLANDO, Fla. - Alisha Chulani and Nikolina Batoshvili won a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles to give CMS a 2-1 lead, and Chulani, Audrey Yoon and Lindsay Eisenman won quick singles decisions as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team defeated Emory 5-1 in the NCAA Division III Semifinals on Tuesday afternoon at the USTA National Campus.

With the win, CMS now stands at 26-1 with 22 straight wins and advances to the NCAA Division III national championship match for the fourth straight season it has competed. The Athenas won the national title in 2018 over Emory, then fell to Wesleyan 5-4 in 2019 before missing two years due to pandemic. In 2022, the Athenas won their second national title with a 5-1 win over Chicago, and they will face Chicago again tomorrow to try to make it back-to-back championships. 

Emory earned the first point of the match at No. 2 doubles, but Eisenman and Ella Brissett were able to answer with an 8-4 win at No. 3 doubles. Chulani and Batoshvili were up two breaks early on, but Emory rallied and the Athenas had to hold down 7-6 to force it to a tiebreaker. CMS did, and with the score 3-3 at the first changeover, the Athenas won four points in a row for a 7-3 win and a 2-1 lead. 

CMS then controlled singles to earn the decisive victory, as Yoon, Chulani and Eisenman all finished their matches within two minutes of each other to close it out in a hurry. Yoon had a 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 2, winning the first 10 games of the match before her opponent finally was able to get on the board to make it 4-1 in the second set. Chulani then closed a 6-2 6-2 win at No. 1, and Eisenman dominated the second set at No. 6 for a 6-2, 6-0 win that set off the celebration. 

The Athenas were also ahead on the three unfinished courts. Sena Selby had a 6-3, 3-2 lead at No. 4, Brissett was up 6-3, 1-2 at No. 3, and Batoshvili was still in the first set, but had a 6-5 lead at No. 5. 

CMS and Chicago met once this season indoors, with the Maroons handing the Athenas their only loss of the year at the ITA Indoor Championships in February (5-1). Chicago is 23-0 on the year, with only one 5-4 decision (vs. Trinity) and only one 6-3 decision (vs. WashU), but last year the Maroons were undefeated against DIII teams heading into the national finals, when CMS was able to hand them a 5-1 defeat at the same facility in Orlando.