CMS Defeats Caltech 5-0 to Advance to SCIAC Championship Match

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team remained undefeated on the year with a quick 5-0 win over Caltech in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament Semifinals on Thursday afternoon at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

CMS won all three doubles matches 8-2, and Alisha Chulani (6-1, 6-0) and Muduo Zhou (6-1, 6-1) followed with dominant singles wins at No. 1 and No. 5, respectively, to give the Athenas the clinch. 

Seniors Sena Selby and Audrey Yoon took the first doubles point at No. 3 with an 8-2 win, and Chulani and Nikolina Batoshvili were able to come away with an 8-2 win at No. 1 to make it 2-0. Moments later, Ella Brissett and Lindsay Eisenman earned the third 8-2 win to send the Athenas into singles with a 3-0 lead. 

Caltech did battle in singles, taking the first sets at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 6, but the Athenas only needed two points after the doubles sweep and arrived there quickly. Anna Petrescu also won her first set for CMS at No. 4 singles 6-2. 

CMS will face No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer for the SCIAC Championship on Saturday, after narrowly defeated the Sagehens in the regular season finale 5-4 to earn the top seed in the tournament. The two teams also played to a 5-4 decision in the NCAA Divison III Regional finals last year, and to a 5-4 decision in the 2022 SCIAC Championship, both of which the Athenas won. 

The Athenas will be trying to win the SCIAC's automatic bid for the 11th year in a row, a streak which began in 2012 (and was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic for two years). Pomona-Pitzer did win the regular season title over CMS in 2022, but the Athenas bounced back to win in the SCIAC finals and earn the automatic bid.