Athenas Defeat Occidental and Cal-Lutheran to Claim #3 Seed for SCIAC Championships

CMS Women's Tennis gear up for SCIAC Championship weekend looking strong as the 3rd seed in the conference. The CMS Athenas finished a 2-part match with Occidental on March 27th that was detached due to rain during the first scheduled day. However the Athenas had no fear and finished strong with only one loss in doubles for #1 Katie Lorish and Jaclyn Smrecek, one loss in singles from #3 Alle Hsu, and a forfeit due to injury from #1 Jaclyn Smrecek. One highlight of the match was #2 Katie Lorish's amazing second set finish. On March 6th, Lorish battled hard to win the first set 7-5 and was up 2-1 in the second before the rain interrupted. Three weeks later, Lorish showed no mercy as she won 4 games straight to finish the match quickly.The final score was 6-3 for the Athenas.

The following week, April 2-3rd, the Athenas had two unfortunate losses to Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer, respectively. Both 9-0 losses. It was rough, especially with #1 Jaclyn Smrecek off the court with an injury, the CMS women found it difficult to pull through with any win. However, their spirits were not crushed. The following weekend, this past Saturday, April 10th, the Athenas were back out on the courts refreshed and ready to avenge their 2009 5-4 loss to Cal-Lutheran University.

Beginning in doubles, #1 Jaclyn Smrecek and Riley Thomlison took an easy lead early on and played great, aggressive tennis throughout to win 8-3. #3 Alle Hsu and Hannah Gordon were at first down 1-2, but found their groove and won 7 games in a row to make it 8-2, a landslide win. #2 Emilee Feldhausen and Katie Lorish lost decisively 8-2 to the Cal-Lu Regals, and also later losing in each of their singles matches. Though these two girls lost, they surrendered the only 3 points the Athenas lost during the match.

Singles went quickly when on the bottom half of the draw, #5 Alle Hsu ripped through her match to win 6-0, 6-0. In a just as close victory of 6-1, 6-0, #4 Hannah Gordon was next to step off the court conquering and proud. #6 Riley Thomlison (pictured at right) did not even let up a game in her second set once she understood her opponent's weaknesses; final score for Riley was 6-2, 6-0.

The most exciting match of the day was with #1 Jaclyn Smrecek against Cal-Lu's #1 Kim Kolibas. After 3 weeks of being off-court with an injury, Jaclyn lost the first set 6-3. In determination to get back her serving groove, Jaclyn refused to look defeated. She fought hard in the second set. Though down 3-4, she fought to finish the next 3 games the victor. This 2nd set victory took the match to a 3rd set 10-point tiebreaker. With momentum working with her, Jaclyn just kept regaining her fantastic gameplay and allowed her to win the tiebreaker 10-6 and secure a 6th victory for the Athenas. The final score was 6-3 and the Athenas shouted their name proudly in avenging their 2009 loss.

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