CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team took control early in both doubles and singles and captured a 4-0 win over Whitman in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
With the win, the top-seeded Athenas improve to 24-1 and advance to the NCAA Regional Finals tomorrow, when they will take on Pomona-Pitzer at 11 a.m.
CMS won 6-1 at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, with No. 3 up 5-1 as well.
Lindsay Eisenman and
Rebecca Kong earned the first win at No. 1, which was followed quickly by
Celestina Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne and
Ananya Sriniketh at No. 2.
Bell Zhou and
Leah Baroudi were closing in at No. 3, leading 5-1, when their match was halted.
Zhou was the first to finish in singles, where she captured a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 3, with Sriniketh close behind at No. 2 with a 6-1, 6-1 win. The race to the clinch was then between Baroudi at No. 4, and
Rachel Garton at No. 6, who both had simultaneous match points. Baroudi finished hers first with a 6-2, 6-0 victory, and Garton's match was left abandoned at 6-1, 5-0 with her still on a match point.
Cedillo held a 6-0, 4-3 lead at No. 5, and Kong had just earned a 7-2 win in a tiebreaker for the first set at No. 1 to take a 1-0 lead when her match was halted.
CMS and Pomona-Pitzer will meet for the third time in as many weeks. The Athenas took a 5-2 win two weeks ago for the regular season SCIAC title, and then won a 5-0 decision for the SCIAC Tournament title last weekend. This time, the winner will advance to the NCAA Division III Championships in Chattanooga, Tennessee next weekend.
