CLAREMONT, Calif. The Regional host and No. 3 team in the country, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, proved to be too much for the No. 27 ranked Blues, sweeping Whitman 5-0 on Friday afternoon from the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
The Athenas swept their way through doubles play 3-0 before clinching the first two points of singles play to earn the victory. The loss sent Whitman (12-9) home having gone one round further than they did the year before, losing in the second round of the NCAA Women's Tennis Regionals.
"We played a very good match today. We've improved all year and it showed. You can always play better but the team was great today" said Whitman Women's Tennis Head Coach John Hein. "I'm really proud of this team today, but today, all of the credit has to go to CMS. They really earned it."
After using the momentum from doubles in yesterday's win, the Blues simply could not get any momentum going against the CMS doubles teams. There were many moments where you could see that Whitman belonged on the stage, but simply did not have what it took on the day to overcome the talent and momentum of CMS, especially playing on their home courts.
The doubles matches were anything but a given, even as CMS looked to gain early advantages in all three matches. On court three, Anastasiya Redkina and Kattie Pak played their opponents Kyla Scott and Juliette Martin close, even drawing even at 2-2. But from there, the pair of first year players simply did not have enough to match CMS, and eventually fell 8-2.
On court two, Mary Hill and Lori Sheng were a couple of key moments away from potentially turning around their doubles match on court two. Trailing 3-1 and with CMS on the serve, there was a stretch of about ten minutes where both teams could not get the two consecutive points needed to take the game. Eventually, CMS, serving with the advantage, had hit a cross-court forehand that Whitman ended up hitting back into the net on the unforced error. CMS eventually took the doubles set 8-3.
Claremont earned the sweep after the team of Lindsay Brown and Nicole Tan won the first seven games in their contest against Hanna Greenberg and Andrea Gu. The Blues top duo managed to win their next two games, but eventually CMS won the matchup 8-2, and earn the doubles sweep.
From there, CMS simply had too much firepower for the Blues to be able to respond. Kattie Pak had difficulties with the No. 6 from CMS, Ana Bryan-Anajia, losing in straight sets 6-0, 6-2. All six members of the Blues had dropped their first set in singles, but the final point would come for CMS on court No. 2.
After Andrea Gu traded games early with Brown from CMS, Brown eventually took the first set 6-3. After that, Brown had all of the momentum, and was able to finish the sweep off for the Athena's, defeating Gu 6-1 in set number two and putting an end to the match.
"It obviously was not the result we wanted, but the tournament is a great send off to our two seniors and we have a lot to look forward to next year" added Hein. Making the tournament for the second time in three years is a great accomplishment, and as we had stressed, the goal from the beginning of the year to now was to get better.
