Athenas Outlast No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer in Sixth Street Showdown

Claremont, Calif. – It took just over four hours for the most recent installment of the Sixth Street rivalry to come to a close, but when the dust settled at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center it was the No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team that emerged with a hard-fought, 8-1 victory over the No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. The Athenas claimed the first point of the day with an 8-2 victory on the second doubles court by the team of Catherine Allen (SC) and Caroline Cox (CMC). CMS held a slim 2-1 lead after doubles play thanks to another victory from Harvey Mudders, Kyla Scott (HMC) and Juliette Martin (HMC) on court three.

In singles play, CMS earned two quick points with straight set victories from Lindsay Brown (CMC) and Caroline Cox on courts three and six, respectively. The final four singles matches all split their first two sets, but Kyla Scott clinched the match with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory at #4 singles for the fifth point for the Athenas in the match.

Thursday's tight match begin in doubles play with two of the three matches decided by scores of 8-6. The Athenas and Sagehens split the pair of close decisions, with Pomona-Pitzter taking court one and the team of Scott and Martin earning the victory on court three. The two close matches were sandwiched around a more convincing victory at #2 doubles with Allen and Cox claiming their 15th doubles victory of the season together with an 8-2 victory.

After a 2-1 mark in doubles play, the Athenas went a perfect 6-0 across the singles matches, sweeping singles play for the 11th time this season. On paper the Athenas' 6-0 singles record looks pretty painless, however only two of the matches were decided in straight sets. As mentioned, Lindsay Brown and Caroline Cox each picked up straight-set victories with Brown claiming a 6-3, 6-1 decision at #3 singles and Cox earning a 6-4, 6-2 win on court six. The wins by Brown and Cox put the Athenas up 4-1, needing just one more point to clinch the victory.

On court four, Kyla Scott won her first set 6-4, but dropped the second set by an identical score to set up a decisive third set. Scott claimed a relatively quick third set by a 6-3 score to earn the fifth team point for the Athenas with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory.

After both splitting their first two sets, and with the match already decided, Nicole Tan (CMC) and Catherine Allen each won match tie-breakers at #1 and #2 singles. Tan picked-up the victory at the top spot with a 7-6, 4-6, 10-8 victory while Allen dropped her first set, but came back for a 3-6, 6-3, 10-3 win on court two.

Rebecca Berger (CMC) wrapped up the match on court five with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Emily Chen to give the Athenas their final point of the night in the 8-1 victory.

The victory moves the Athenas to 20-2 on the season and more importantly to 6-0 in the SCIAC. CMS will next take the court on Saturday when they travel to Cal Lutheran to take on the Regals in their final SCIAC match of the season. A win against Cal Lutheran would lock up the Athenas 20th SCIAC Championship in program history. The Regals and Athenas are slated to begin their match at 10:00 a.m.