CMS Women's Tennis Uses Comebacks to Defeat Division I Bowling Green

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Gabby Lee and Devon Wolfe won the final four games at No. 3 doubles to come from behind for a 6-4 win and earn the doubles point, and Alisha Chulani and Nikolina Batoshvili came back from three games down in key singles sets, as the CMS women's tennis team defeated Division I Bowling Green 5-2 on Saturday afternoon at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

With the win, CMS improves to 7-2 overall on the year, and responded just 15 hours after knocking off No. 2 Emory in a length match that ended after 8 p.m. last evening. Bowling Green falls to 3-7 with the loss. 

The match was played with Division I rules, which meant that the three doubles matches would only count as one point instead of the three at the Division III level. The teams split 6-1 decisions at the top two lines, with Sena Selby and Sarah Bahsoun winning 6-1 at No. 2 for the Athenas, and Wolfe and Lee trailed 4-2 in the swing match at No. 3. However, they were able to pull out the last four games to complete a 6-4 comeback win and give CMS a 1-0 lead heading into singles. 

Bowling Green got off to the early edge in singles with leads on five courts, but Chulani came back from 3-0 down at No. 6 to take the first set 6-4 and help restore the advantage back to CMS, as Ella Brissett and Batoshvili each took first sets as well. The Falcons won matches at No. 1 and No. 2 singles to take a 2-1 lead, before Batoshvili came back from down 5-2 in the second set to win five straight games for a 6-2, 7-5 win to tie the score. 

Chulani finished off her win at No. 6 in a tiebreaker, taking it 6-4, 7-6 to give the Athenas a 3-2 lead. Brissett then responded in the second set with several key points, coming back from down 40-30 to tie it 4-4, winning a deuce point for a 5-4 lead, and then breaking serve to take a 7-5, 6-4 win to give CMS the clinch. 

The Athenas added one final comeback at No. 5 singles, as Audrey Yoon responded after dropping the first set for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win to finish off the 5-2 final score. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow when it returns to Division III play, entertaining Babson for a 10:30 a.m. contest at Biszantz Family Tennis Center.