Athenas roll past Middlebury 8-1
CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team demonstrated why they are ranked No. 2 by the most recent ITA rankings with the 8-1 win over No. 9 Middlebury on Friday afternoon. The Athenas (15-0) dominated in doubles and then did not miss a beat transitioning into singles play for another win against a top-10 opponent.
The Athenas took a commanding lead in doubles play taking all three matches 8-4. Junior Kyla Scott (HMC) and freshman Madison Shea (CMC) broke Midd's serve to win the first team point for CMS. Seconds later, freshman Catherine Allen (SC) held serve as she and senior partner Katie Kuosman (CMC) took out Kaysee Orozco and Catherine Blazye.
On court No. 1, junior Lindsay Brown (CMC) finished her match with a strong service game as she and partner Nicole Tan (CMC) won three points in a row to wrap up their match to complete the doubles sweep.
With Scott temporarily removed from the lineup, all CMS players shifted up in the order with Tan playing at No. 1 and Ana Bryan-Ajania (SC) moving into No. 6 singles.
In her own seemingly effortless style, Tan went 6-1, 6-3 at the top position beating No. 41 Christina Puccinelli. The freshman has quietly gone unbeaten in the spring season in both doubles and singles.
The Athenas clinched the win when courts No. 2 and 6 wrapped up almost simultaneously. In the No. 2 position, Allen had a double match point at 40-15 but No. 17 Alexandra Fields rallied back to force the game to go to two deuce points before Allen won the game for the 6-3, 6-4 match victory. At the far end of the courts, Bryan-Ajania finished her match seconds before Allen to officially clinch the win for the Athenas. As her match wore on, the lefty got stronger and took the final set 6-0.
At No. 5, Brown out-hustled her opponent for the eventual 6-4, 6-1 win. The final team point came down to sophomore Jessie Cruz (CMC) against Blazye on court three. Cruz won the first set handily, 6-3 but then dropped the second 7-5. The pair grinded out the match tiebreaker as Cruz battled through obvious pain and discomfort. Cruz was up 4-1 but then Blaze tied it up at 5-all and 6-all before the Athena prevailed with the 10-7 victory.
CMS ultimately won the highly anticipated match 8-1 as Midd's only team point came from Heather Boehm's 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4.
The Athenas are right back on the court tomorrow, April 1 at 10 a.m. vs. No. 27 Whitman.
By Emily Nordhoff
Sports Information Director
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