On to the Semis! CMS Women's Tennis Takes Down MIT 5-2 in NCAA Quarterfinal Round

Orlando, Fla. - Senior Sarah Bahsoun won in both singles and doubles, and senior Sydney Lee picked up the clincher at No. 2 singles, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team moved on to the semifinal round with a 5-2 win over MIT on Monday afternoon at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.

With the win, CMS improves to 25-3 and will meet Wesleyan tomorrow in the semifinal round at 3 p.m. (EDT) in a rematch of the 2019 national championship match, which Wesleyan won 5-4. That was the last time that the Athenas competed at nationals after missing the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the pandemic, seeing their 2020 season cut short while ranked No. 1 in the nation. Wesleyan advanced with a 5-3 win over Emory.

CMS was able to seize momentum against MIT in doubles, as Bahsoun and Devon Wolfe nearly earned a shutout win before settling for an 8-1 victory at No. 3. Nikolina Batoshvili and Alisha Chulani then captured an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles to make it a 2-0 lead, before MIT was able to salvage the last doubles point. 

The Athenas didn't leave much drama in singles needing only three wins to finish out the match, as they won the first sets on five courts. Bahsoun was the first to finish as she took a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 6 to put CMS ahead 3-1. Audrey Yoon followed shortly after with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 3 to put CMS on the cusp of the team win. 

MIT did pick up a point at No. 1 singles, to make it a 4-2 CMS lead, but Sydney Lee won the race to the clinch with a 6-0 second set to finish off a 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 2 to make it a 5-2 final. Ella Brissett led 6-2, 4-3 at No. 4 when the match was halted, and Nikolina Batoshvili was up a set (6-4, 2-2) at No. 5. 

CMS is advancing to the NCAA Semifinals for its fourth straight trip to nationals. In 2017, the Athenas fell to Emory in the semis before bouncing back the next year to defeat the Eagles in the finals at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center for the first national title in program history. In 2019, CMS beat Carnegie Mellon in the quarterfinals, then took down Middlebury in the semifinals, before a tight defeat to Wesleyan in the national championship.