CMS Women's Tennis Cruises to 9-0 Senior Day Win over Cal Lutheran

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The second-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team earned its 20th win of the season (20-1) as it captured a 9-0 win over SCIAC Cal Lutheran on Saturday morning at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

It was also Senior Day as the program honored its only member of the Class of 2019, Jessie Cruz, prior to the match. Cruz went on to play No. 5 singles and earned a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win to pick up her 98th career win (both singles and doubles), improving to 98-18 overall in four years. 

The Athenas earned a quick doubles sweep, with junior Nicole Tan and freshman Sarah Bahsoun winning an 8-0 decision at No. 1 for the first point of the day. After freshman Crystal Juan and junior Juliette Martin picked up an 8-2 win at No. 3, junior Madison Shea and sophomore Rebecca Berger capped off the doubles sweep with an 8-2 win to give CMS a 3-0 win heading into singles. 

Once the match went to singles, the Athenas showed too much depth, picking up quick wins at the bottom of the ladder to earn the team clinch. Sophomore Caroline Cox had a perfect 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 4, with Cruz (6-1, 6-0) and junior Anastasia Bryan-Ajania (6-1, 6-2 at No. 6) combining to drop just four games in the bottom three spots of the ladder. 

Freshman Sydney Lee took a 6-2, 6-1 win playing at No. 3 singles, and Berger outlasted Cal Lutheran's Nicole Alvarez in a lengthy match at No. 2, winning 6-3, 6-1. The only intrigue on the day was seeing if Tan could finish off the shutout win at No. 1 singles after dropping the first set to Christie Kurdys 6-3. Tan responded to the challenge, getting the split with a 6-2 win in the second set, and then winning the third-set tiebreaker 10-5. 

The win keeps the Athenas undefeated in the SCIAC at 6-0, and sets up a winner-take-all battle for the regular season title and the top seed in the conference tournament when it travels to No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer on Wednesday.