Katherine Wurster Wins SCIAC Newcomer of the Year, Six Athenas Take All-SCIAC Accolades

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Katherine Wurster of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team earned the SCIAC Newcomer of the Year and six Athenas earned spots on the two all-league teams, the conference office announced today.

Wurster was joined on the All-SCIAC first team by Alisha Chulani and Audrey Yoon, while second-team selections included Nikolina Batoshvili, Ella Brissett and Sena Selby. 

Wurster earned All-America honors in the fall, when she captured the ITA West Region Championship in singles, defeating Angie Zhou of Pomona-Pitzer in the finals, who was the national runner-up in singles last year and earned the SCIAC Athlete of the Year Award this year. Wurster heads into postseason play with a 17-6 singles record and a 23-4 mark in doubles. 

Chulani played much of the year at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for CMS, after earning All-America distinction in doubles last year. She carries a 16-4 record in singles in the postseason (7-3 while playing at No. 1), and is 21-10 in doubles, 13-5 since being reunited with Batoshvili, who studied abroad in the fall. 

Yoon has been virtually unbeatable this year in singles, carrying an 18-1 record into the SCIAC Tournament, including 14-0 in dual matches. Her only defeat was to Zhou in the ITA West Region quarterfinals, and she has dropped only two sets in the entire spring, one to Division I Santa Clara in an unfinished match in which she led 5-0 in the third, and one to Redlands, when she came back to win in three. 

Batoshvili returned this spring from studying abroad and has had a 15-5 record in doubles, as well as a 14-2 mark in singles. Brissett, who earned the clinching point in the national championship match a year ago, has a 22-2 singles record, including 17-1 in duals, and a 19-5 doubles mark for a combined 41-7 record. Selby also has 41 combined wins for the Athenas this year, 21-3 in singles and 20-6 in doubles. 

CMS opens SCIAC Tournament play at home against Chapman at 2 p.m. on Friday, with the championship match to be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. (CMS would earn the right to host with a semifinal win).