CMS Women's Tennis Adds Two More Wins, Defeats No. 8 Sewanee, No. 16 Bowdoin

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The fourth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team knocked off a pair of top-20 teams in one day, defeating No. 8 Sewanee 7-2 in the morning and then shutting out Bowdoin 9-0 in the afternoon.

With the wins, CMS improves to 11-2 on the year, including 6-0 since returning from the ITA Indoor Nationals.

Against Sewanee, doubles were incredibly tight as all three courts came down to the wire. At No. 3, Sena Selby and Sarah Bahsoun took the last two games for an 8-6 win, giving CMS the first point of the match. At No. 2, Gabby Lee and Sydney Lee came back from 7-2 down to pull within 7-6. They then fought off two match points and had a game point to try to tie it 7-7, but the Tigers were able to hold on for an 8-6 win to tie the match at a point apiece.

That brought the swing point down to No. 1 doubles, where Alisha Chulani and Nikolina Batoshvili went to a tiebreaker. The Athenas missed on a match point opportunity as Sewanee tied the score 6-6, but out of the changeover, CMS won the next two points with Chulani winning it on a well-placed volley into the corner.

Once the Athenas got through doubles, they nearly swept the six singles courts, before Sewanee salvaged one point with a 12-10 tiebreaker win at No. 3 and make the final score 7-2. Selby gave CMS the first singles point with a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 6, and Ella Brissett held off a second-set challenge for a 6-0, 7-5 win at No. 4. Sydney Lee earned the clinch at No. 2 when she capped off a 6-2, 6-2 win to extend the lead to 5-1.

Gabby Lee tacked on an additional point with a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 5, ending the match with a return winner into the corner. Crystal Juan earned herself a big comeback win at No. 1 singles, rallying from down 5-2 in the first set for a 7-5, 6-3 win to give the Athenas their seventh point.

In the nightcap against Bowdoin, CMS took all three doubles points, and then quickly secured the team clinch with a pair of singles wins. Devon Wolfe earned the first win at No. 6 singles with a 6-1, 6-2 victory, after earning the third point in doubles with Juan at No. 3. Chulani then added a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 4 for the clinch. Audrey Yoon played at No. 1 and almost had a perfect match, before settling for a 6-0, 6-1 win, and Selby earned her second singles win of the day with a 6-2, 6-4 victory at No. 5.  

Brissett earned her second singles win of the day at No. 2, taking a 6-4, 7-6 victory with a 7-5 tiebreaker win in the second set. Bahsoun capped off the shutout with a three-set win at No. 3 singles, winning 6-3, 5-7, 10-4.

CMS will have a week off before returning to action next weekend with key home matches against Middlebury on Friday and Williams on Saturday.