Crystal Juan, Sydney Lee Earn All-America Honors in Singles, Batoshvili/Chulani in Doubles

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Crystal Juan and Sydney Lee earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America honors in singles, and Nikolina Batoshvili and Alisha Chulani captured it in doubles, the organization announced today.

Juan also earned the ITA West Region honor for Most Improved Senior, while Devon Wolfe earned the West Region Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award 

On their way to All-America honors, Juan played No. 1 singles, Lee played No. 2 singles, and Batoshvili and Chulani were the No. 1 doubles team for an Athenas squad that captured the second national title in program history with a 5-1 win over Chicago on May 25. 

Both Juan and Lee earned All-America distinction automatically by winning their first match at the NCAA Division III singles championship after the team title was earned. Batoshvili and Chulani went into the doubles competition as the No. 1 seed and advanced to the quarterfinal round before falling to Williams, earning All-America honors in the process. 

Juan had a meteoric rise as a senior, jumping up from out of the singles lineup before the pandemic, and into the No. 1 spot in the CMS ladder this spring. She had a 17-10 record in singles, compiling an 8-8 mark at No. 1, including the clinching win with the score tied 4-4 in the SCIAC Championship against Pomona-Pitzer. She also took the first set in the national championship match against Chicago off the top-ranked singles player in the country.

Lee had a strong season as well at the No. 2 spot in the lineup, finishing with a 19-5 record overall and a 15-3 mark in duals (with one of the losses coming to Division I Bowling Green). She was the SCIAC Athlete of the Week after a week in which she picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win over Amherst and a 6-2, 6-2 win over Sewanee. 

The emergence of Batoshvili and Chulani as the No. 1 doubles team for CMS was a key factor in the run to the championship. The duo finished with a 20-4 record playing together (16-2 at the No. 1 position, with the only losses coming to Division I Bowling Green and to Middlebury in a tiebreaker). They were 7-0 in postseason duals, including a key tiebreaker win in the SCIAC Championship against Pomona-Pitzer and an 8-6 win over Chicago in the national finals. 

Devon Wolfe ended the year with a 14-5 record in singles and a 22-7 mark in doubles. She and Sarah Bahsoun settled into the No. 3 spot in the doubles lineup and also went 7-0 through the postseason, including an 8-7 win over Wesleyan in the semifinals and an 8-6 win over Chicago in the championship match, giving the Athenas the lead for good. A transfer from Bowdoin, she served as a team captain and is a member of the College Programming Board at Claremont McKenna. 

CMS finished the year with a 27-3 record and the second national title in program history. The Athenas rolled through the NCAA Tournament, dropping only three points in five matches, with a 5-0 win over SUNY-Oneonta, a 5-0 win over Case Western, a 5-2 win over MIT, a 5-0 win over Wesleyan and a 5-1 win over Chicago.