CMS Women's Tennis Advances to ITA Indoor Semis with 9-0 win over Centre

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. - The No. 2 ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team opened up play at the ITA Indoor Nationals with a strong performance against host Centre College, taking a quick 9-0 win on Friday afternoon.

With the win, the Athenas improve to 8-0 on the season and will move on to face Carnegie Mellon in tomorrow's semifinal round at 10 a.m. (PST). 

CMS dominated in doubles, dropping on two games combined over the three courts. Senior Catherine Allen and junior Caroline Cox, the defending Division III national champions in doubles, took an 8-0 win at No. 1, while the No. 2 (Justine Leong and Crystal Juan) and the No. 3 (Sarah Bahsoun and Nicole Tan) doubles teams won by identical 8-1 scores. 

CMS wrapped up the team win quickly in singles as junior Rebecca Berger took a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 2, and Allen followed with the clincher at No. 1 by a 6-1, 6-0 final. Bahsoun earned a 6-0, 6-0 sweep at No. 6 to stretch the lead to 6-0, while sophomore Sydney Lee (6-2, 6-0), sophomore Devon Wolfe (6-0, 6-1) and Cox (6-1, 6-0) earned wins at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 to finish off the shutout win. 

CMS and Carnegie Mellon met a year ago in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with CMS coming away with the 5-1 win. Allen and Cox also played Danna Taylor and Melissa Strome in the ITA Cup National Championship in the fall of 2018, winning in three sets, and took the rematch 8-3 in the NCAA Quarterfinals to help the Athenas to the doubles sweep.