CMS Women's Tennis Matches up with Carnegie Mellon at NCAA Quarterfinals Monday
NCAA Division III Championships Home Page
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team, ranked No. 2 in the nation, will try to defend its 2018 national championship this week when it heads to the NCAA Division III Championships at Kalamazoo College, opening with a quarterfinal matchup on Monday morning at 11 a.m. (8 a.m. Pacific) against Carnegie Mellon.
The Athenas enter the NCAA Quarterfinals with a 25-1 record after capturing its regional for the eighth year in a row last weekend at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, taking the finals 5-1 over Pomona-Pitzer. CMS captured its first national title in program history last year at Biszantz, defeating Emory 5-4 in the finals, while this year, Emory has been the only team to defeat the Athenas, earning a 5-3 win at the ITA Indoor Nationals on March 3.
The two heavyweight are on opposite sides of the NCAA Championships bracket and would not have another rematch until the finals on Wednesday. The CMS-Carnegie Mellon winner will advance to Tuesday's semifinals against the winner of the All-NESCAC quarterfinal between Amherst and Middlebury. Emory faces Chicago in its quarterfinal, with the winner moving on to the semis to face either Wesleyan or MIT. The championship match will be played on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m.
CMS and Carnegie Mellon haven't played this year, but their top doubles teams did meet once in the championship match of the ITA Oracle Cup in the fall on Oct. 13 in Rome, Georgia. Melissa Strome and Danna Taylor took the first set for Carnegie Mellon 6-4, but Cox and Allen bounced back to win the second two sets for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win, earning them the No. 1 ranking in the nation in Division III.
Cox and Allen didn't drop a single doubles match all year against a Division III team until their very last one, when Pomona-Pitzer's No. 1 doubles team took an 8-5 win at the NCAA Regional Finals. Their only other loss this year was to Division II UC San Diego, as the duo heads to the NCAA Championships with a 26-2 record, where they will participate in the doubles championships on May 24-26 after the conclusion of the team championships.
Allen will also be a part of the NCAA Singles Championship, along with junior Nicole Tan and sophomore Rebecca Berger. Allen comes into nationals with a 17-2 overall record in singles, including a 13-1 record in duals, and she turned the tables on the only player to beat her the last two times they met, defeating Caroline Casper of Pomona-Pitzer 6-2, 6-2 in the SCIAC finals and then taking the first set off of her 6-0 before the match was called after the Athenas clinched in the middle of a tight second set.
Tan, who studied abroad in the fall, comes into the NCAA Championships with an 11-3 singles record, mostly playing at No. 2, while Berger is 16-1 and undefeated in dual matches at 14-0, mostly playing at No. 3. Berger's only loss came to Ghazal Pakbaten of Division II Concordia Irvine at the Athenas' season-opening Fall Scramble way back on Sept. 16 in the finals of the A Flight.
CMS also has outstanding depth in its singles line-up, with freshman Sydney Lee holding down the No. 4 spot, Cox at No. 5 and freshman Sarah Bahsoun at No. 6. Lee leads CMS in singles wins with 24 (24-4), including a 19-2 record in dual matches and 14 straight wins heading into Kalamazoo. Cox stands at 15-3 (14-2 in duals), with 10 straight wins, while Bahsoun is at 20-3 (16-2 in duals) and has 13 straight wins.
Bahsoun and Tan are also the first alternate for the NCAA Division III Doubles Championship, holding down a 19-3 record, while Lee and junior Madison Shea have been playing at No. 3 doubles down the stretch and are 6-0 together.
CMS has not played Amherst this season, if the two teams should both advance to the semifinals, but the Athenas have met Middlebury and captured an 8-1 win at home back on March 29. On the other side of the bracket, CMS has defeated Chicago twice (7-2 at the ITA Indoor Semifinals and 8-1 at home on March 29) and WashU once (9-0 at the ITA Indoor Quarterfinals), while dropping its match to Emory at the ITA Indoors.
To follow along with live scoring and live video (which will be shown of select courts), visit the NCAA Division III Championships Home Page, hosted by Kalamazoo College.