Wesleyan Denies CMS Women's Tennis a Chance at Three-Peat With 5-3 Semifinal Win

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team traveled to St. Louis this week for the NCAA Championships with eyes on winning its third straight national title, but Wesleyan was able to get in the way of those hopes and earn a 5-3 win over the Athenas on Tuesday in the semifinal round.

The loss ends the season for CMS with a 25-2 record, after it spent the entire season ranked No. 1. Wesleyan remained undefeated with the win (22-0) and moves on to play Chicago in the national championship, after the Maroons came back from a 4-0 deficit to defeat Pomona-Pitzer 5-4 in the other semifinal. 

The match began outdoors in blustery conditions that featured 20-30 mph wind gusts, but a lightning delay interrupted the match early in singles, and the competition was moved indoors once rain came. 

CMS is now 22-2 in the NCAA Tournament in its last five appearances, with Wesleyan accounting for both losses. The other was in the national championship match in 2019, when the Athenas fell 5-4 in their bid to repeat after winning the title in 2018. After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, CMS returned to win back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, but Wesleyan was able to stop the Athena run again.  

CMS led 2-1 after doubles, with Alisha Chulani and Nikolina Batoshvili providing the swing point with an 8-7 win at No. 1 doubles, taking the tiebreaker 7-4. Lindsay Eisenman and Ella Brissett gave CMS a 1-0 lead with a dominant performance at No. 2 doubles, winning 8-2. 

Singles got started outdoors, and then once it moved inside, Wesleyan began to seize momentum. With only four courts available, the No. 1-4 singles matches got started after a 90-minute delay, and the Cardinals took the first set on three of them, with Chulani able to prevail in hers at No. 3 in a tiebreaker. 

Wesleyan, though, finished off their three wins at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 to move ahead 4-2, as Jacqueline Soloveychik won in a second-set tiebreaker 7-4 at No. 4. Chulani earned a 7-6, 6-4 win at No. 3 to get CMS back within 4-3, but Lane Durkin was able to get the clinch for Wesleyan at No. 5 with a 7-6, 6-1 win to move the Cardinals on the finals. 

CMS will try to get back to the winner's circle again next year, although it will need to replace half of its lineup in both singles and doubles with the graduation of Batoshvili, Sena Selby and Audrey Yoon.