Semi-final Saturday saw amazing competition in the main draw and consolation matches. Ultimately, only two teams advanced to the Championship match.
(2) Emory University def. (3) Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, 8-1
Emory is headed back to battle for the Championship title for the fourth consecutive season after defeating Pomona-Pitzer, 8-1, in the semifinal round.
For the second straight match, Emory opened play with a sweep of the doubles matches to jump out in front early. At No. 1 doubles, Stephanie Taylor and Christina Watson claimed an 8-3 win while Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico and Jessica Fatemi doubled up their opponents, 8-4, at the No. 2 position. The No. 3 doubles needed a tiebreaker to decide a winner with Alexa Goetz and Katelyn Thomas edging out the win 8-7 (7-0).
Five of the six singles matches went the way of the Eagles with four coming in straight sets.
Emory saw straight set wins from Emma Cartledge (6-1, 6-2) and Thomas (6-3, 6-1) at the No. 4 and No. 6 spots to help the Eagles earn the two wins needed to clinch the win.
Gonzalez-Rico added a straight set win at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-2 as did Fatemi at No. 5, 6-4, 6-1. Watson rounded out the singles winners for the Eagles, earning the 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-1) victory at No. 3 singles.
The Eagles advance to take on top-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Sunday’s Championship; a rematch of last year’s title match.
(1) Claremont-Mudd-Scripps def. (4) Carnegie Mellon, 9-0
The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps shut out No. 7 Carnegie Mellon on Saturday.
Justine Leong had the clincher at No. 1 singles for CMS, after she also helped the Athenas to a 3-0 lead after doubles with an 8-3 win at No. 2, along with Crystal Juan. Catherine Allen and Caroline Cox earned an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles, while Nicole Tan and Sarah Bahsoun picked up an 8-5 win at No. 3.
In singles, Devon Wolfe was the first to finish for CMS, picking up a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 5 to make it a 4-0 lead. Leong quicky followed with the clinch, winning 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles over Danna Taylor, who is ranked No. 7 nationally.
The Athenas didn’t drop a set on their way to the 9-0 win, as Allen (6-1, 6-1 at No. 2) and Cox (6-1, 6-1 at No. 6) had identical scores to complete their singles-doubles sweeps. Rebecca Berger picked up a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles, and Sydney Lee had a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 4 to close out the match.
The Athenas now face No. 3 Emory for the Indoor Championship on Sunday at 12:00pm EST.
(6) MIT def. (7) Brandeis University, 9-0
MIT got off to a quick start with 8-0 shutout victories over the Judges of Brandeis at No. 1 and No. 3 singles. At the top spot, Sarah Pertsemlidis and Libby Rickeman took down Ana Hatfield and Lauren Bertsch. At No. 3, it was Lara Rakocevic and Yuka Perera with the 8-0 victory.
In the No. 2 position, the MIT duo of Megan Guenther and Pamela Duke came away with the 8-4 victory over the Brandeis pair of Rachel Zubrinsky and Isabel Cepeda to complete the doubles sweep.
In singles action, Rakocevic earned her 100th career victory as she defeated Cepeda in a 6-0, 6-1 final in the No. 4 spot.
MIT took all six singles matches in straight sets, including wins at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 where the Engineers surrendered just one game each. At No. 5, Sara Fernandez earned the 6-1, 6-0 win over Grace Wang, along with a 6-0, 6-1 win from Vanessa Kitova at No. 6.
Rickeman defeated Bertsch by a 6-1, 6-2 margin to go along with wins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles by Seraphin Castelino and Ashley Teng.
The Engineers take on No. 5 seeded University of Chicago at 8 am EST on Sunday.
(5) University of Chicago def. (8) Centre College, 9-0
The Maroons captured Saturday with a 9-0 sweep of Centre College.
Doubles was a rapid affair with the Maroons only surrendering three games combined in three matches. Singles ended up similarly one-sided. In the six matches, UChicago won 72 of the 80 games played.
Claudia Ng and Annika Pandey each tallied 6-0, 6-0 shutouts at No. 2 and No. 6 singles, respectively. Pandey and Catherine Xu also picked up an 8-0 win at No. 3 doubles. Multiple winners on the day included Ng, Pandey, Xu, Lauren Park and Perene Wang
The University of Chicago will face MIT on Sunday at 8:00am EST.
