Three Years in The Making: The Long Road to Redemption for CMS Women's Tennis

Winning a national championship is always special, and comparing how special each one is can be a fool's errand. What makes one team's title any better or more meaningful than another's?

Yet if you did rank them, the 2022 CMS women's tennis title would be as hard to beat as the Athenas were in the NCAA Tournament.

CMS was as dominant as a team has ever been at nationals, losing only three points in three matches, taking a 5-2 win over MIT in the quarterfinals, a 5-0 win over Wesleyan in the semis and a 5-1 win in the national finals over top-ranked Chicago. Emory lost two points last year in a field that was watered down due to COVID, and lost three points in 2014 (winning 5-1, 5-1, 5-1), while Washington and Lee dropped two points in 2007 (5-0, 5-0, 5-2). The Athenas also didn't exactly have an easy road laid out for them, needing to beat a 23-0 Wesleyan team and a 22-1 Chicago team that had only lost one match to Division I Eastern Michigan.

But the dominance is only part of what made the win so special, especially for the seniors who were part of the program in 2019.

The Athenas came up just short in the national title match that season, falling 5-4 to Wesleyan. CMS had won its first national title in 2018 and was hoping to go back-to-back, but came up agonizingly short. Sarah Bahsoun, then a first-year, won her singles match at No. 6, but she and senior Nicole Tan dropped their match at No. 2 doubles. First-year Sydney Lee won her match at No. 3 doubles with senior Madison Shea, and then was the last player on the court in a 4-4 tie with the national title on the line.

Lee played the only three-setter in singles (at No. 4) against Polina Kiseleva of Wesleyan, battling back after dropping the first set to take the second 6-4. Official stats aren't kept in collegiate tennis, but it was a match with remarkably few unforced errors for the amount of pressure that both players faced. Unfortunately for Lee, Kiseleva was just simply on that day. Every time she went for a winner, she painted the line or put it perfectly in the corner, including match point.

When the last winner painted the line, the Cardinals rushed the court to celebrate, and the Athenas rushed the court to console Lee, who played her heart out in a big spot. She just had one of those losses where, as much as it is a cliché, you just simply have to tip your cap to your opponent and get ready to work hard and come back for another shot, along with your teammates.

Then COVID hit.

In March of 2020, CMS was sitting at 14-0, No. 1 in the nation, and had all the makings of a national title team. It wasn't necessarily a given -- there was a close 5-4 win over Emory at the ITA Indoor Nationals, a place where the Athenas have historically struggled against Emory (including this season), but beat them to win their first indoor title ever. Other than that, CMS looked close to untouchable. The Athenas had the NCAA's top two ranked singles players in the country playing at No. 1 and No. 2 (Justine Leong and Catherine Allen), a returning All-American at No. 3 (Rebecca Berger), and the defending national champion doubles team (Allen and Caroline Cox).

In April of 2020, though, the season was over, so trying for a chance at redemption would have to wait. And then wait again, as CMS never came back for athletic competition in 2020-21 either.

The 2021-22 season ended with the championship, but it was anything but a redemption tour. The fall was not up to the program's usual standards, as CMS did not have a singles player reach the ITA Cup. The spring saw the Athenas come in fourth place at the ITA Indoors, falling in the semifinals to Emory and then to Pomona-Pitzer in the consolation round. The Sagehens were also dominant in the fall, putting two players in the ITA regional finals in singles, and adding the doubles champion, and then they took the first of three meetings with CMS in the spring to make it look like the Sixth Street balance of power had shifted post-COVID.

The Athenas bounced back to beat Emory outdoors, but the second meeting with Pomona-Pitzer was a 7-2 loss, making CMS the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. The third time was the charm, though, as Juan came through with the deciding point in a 5-4 win over the Sagehens in the SCIAC Championship.

That would pretty much be the last significant challenge they would face, as the NCAA Regionals at Case Western produced a pair of 5-0 wins, followed by the dominant run in Orlando to the championship. It was the definition of peaking at the right time ... a time which was, well, a long time coming. 

"I'm so proud of this group," said head coach David Schwarz. "Obviously we didn't start the year terrifically. At the national indoors, which doesn't even have the NESCAC in it, we went 1-2. We just kind of believed in our training. I've never seen a team improve as much in a year in my whole career, and I've been doing this a really long time."

For the seniors, of course, the moment was extra special.

"It's incredible. I can't believe it. I have no words honestly, said Bahsoun after the match. "Especially as a senior, and losing the last two years over COVID. I … I have no words. It's an incredible feeling."

If Hollywood wrote the script, Lee would have won the clincher for a perfect redemption arc. She was up 6-3, 3-2 on court No. 2, and looked poised to come through if needed. Her match moved a little slower due to the number of deuces, so she didn't get the opportunity to close it out, but holding the trophy and being part of the celebration was more than enough redemption.

"Losing those two years was obviously really difficult," said Lee. "Freshman year we ended up losing in the finals in a really close match so coming back here and taking the title this year has been absolutely amazing. I can't even describe it."    

Juan wasn't in the regular CMS lineup that year, but came back and earned All-America honors in doubles as a sophomore by making it to the semifinals of the ITA Cup. By the spring, she wasn't in the singles lineup that season either, but spent the COVID years working hard and getting better.

This year, Juan made an astronomical leap up to No. 1 singles, a huge development for the CMS success. Her emergence as the No. 1 meant she drew the toughest opponents in every match, and let the CMS depth shine through with Lee able to play at No. 2, and newcomers Audrey Yoon, Ella Brissett and Nikolina Batoshvili at 3-5. Any one of them could have played No. 1 or No. 2 at most places, but they were able to come along and build confidence in their rookie years without being at the top of the lineup. 

Juan came through with some big personal wins over the year, the rematch with Emory, and the clincher in the SCIAC Championship being among them, and was in a third set against Chicago against the top-ranked player in the nation when the match was called. Being the No. 1 singles player on a national championship team was something that might not have seen possible three years ago, or even three months ago.

"Winning a championship as my last tennis match of my career is very emotional," Juan said. "We've come a long way since the fall. I can't really believe that we're here, but we did it, and I'm really proud of each and every one of my teammates."

In a world without COVID, perhaps CMS is celebrating its fourth national title in the last five years, and the term dynasty is floating around. If that happened, the post-championship discussion around now might be among where the current CMS run would rank among the runs of some great Emory and Williams teams among the best in the sport's history.

But would that have made the 2022 national title more special than this one? With the three-year wait for redemption, and the No. 1 season cut short, and two NCAA tournaments lost to COVID, and the early season struggles after finally returning, only to have it all come together at the end for a triumphant finish?

It's hard to imagine.