Second-Ranked CMS Women's Tennis Defeats No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer 5-4 for SCIAC Regular Season Title

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The second-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team faced a tough challenge from Pomona-Pitzer in singles, but gutted out several tiebreakers to come away with a 5-4 win on Saturday afternoon at the Pauley Tennis Complex to clinch the regular season league title.

The win was the 16th in a row for CMS, which improves to 20-1 overall and 7-0 in SCIAC. Pomona-Pitzer suffers its first conference loss and falls to 12-7 overall (with four losses to DI and DII teams) and 6-1 in league play. 

Audrey Yoon picked up for the clincher for the Athenas at No. 2 singles, despite battling significant cramping as she closed in on match point, due to a long match in the first hot weather weekend of the season. She was up 7-6, 5-1, but Georgia Ryan came back to within 5-4 and served with a chance to pull even in the second set. Yoon, though, broke after a changeover to take it 7-6, 6-4 and earn the fifth and decisive point for CMS. 

CMS led 2-1 after doubles, with Alisha Chulani and Nikolina Batoshvili taking an 8-1 win at No. 1, and Lindsay Eisenman and Ella Brissett earning an 8-5 win at No. 3. Pomona-Pitzer avoided the sweep with a tiebreaker win at No. 2 to make it a 2-1 CMS lead heading into singles. 

At one point, CMS was down in singles on all six courts in the first set, but Eisenman (No. 6), Brissett (No. 3) and Yoon (No. 2) all came back to pick up key tiebreaker wins to swing the momentum. 

After Angie Zhou took a win at No. 1 singles to tie the score for Pomona-Pitzer. Eisenman held on in the second set for a 7-6, 6-3 win to give CMS back the lead, and Brissett controlled the second set in her match for a 7-6, 6-1 win. 

CMS will be back in action for the SCIAC Tournament this weekend as the top seed, looking to win its 11th league championship in a row.