Doubles - Women's Tennis

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis program made history this past weekend by winning the program's first-ever national championship in doubles, with Catherine Allen and Caroline Cox, joining Kristin Lim (2011, singles) and the 2018 team as national champions for the Athenas. 

Making it more intriguing was the fact that Allen and Cox played their own teammates in the finals, besting junior Nicole Tan and freshman Sarah Bahsoun in three sets (6-7, 6-1, 6-3). Allen/Cox and Tan/Bahsoun both rallied from dropping the first set in their semifinals 6-4 to win in three sets to set up the All-Athena match-up in the finals, the first time that the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship had featured two teams from the same program since Gustavus Adolphus had both finalists in 2005. 

Each doubles team had their own side story, as Cox and Allen completed a wire-to-wire No. 1 ranking after winning the ITA Cup doubles championship in the fall. Bahsoun and Tan, meanwhile, reached the finals after not even being invited in the original 16-team field, only earning a spot as an alternate when another team was forced to withdraw. Bahsoun and Tan, who played No. 2 doubles for CMS, knocked off the No. 1 teams from Skidmore, Wesleyan and Middlebury, before falling to their teammates. 

CMS concluded their season as national runners-up with a 27-2 overall record, reaching the finals for the second straight year (the first two finals appearances in program history) after winning the national title in 2018.