Athenas Secure Spot in the Final Eight with win over #7 Pomona-Pitzer

In front of an enthusiastic and supportive crowd of CMS tennis friends, alumni and family, the #12 Athenas secured a spot in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships by beating #7 Pomona-Pitzer in the third round of the championships Saturday at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center at CMC.  The final of the NCAA West Coast Regional between CMS and Pomona-Pitzer was a rematch of the SCIAC final on April 23 where Pomona-Pitzer beat the Athenas 6-3 to win the conference title.

Pomona-Pitzer put the first score on the score board with their win at #3 doubles. The Athenas quickly tied the score 1-1 with a dominating 8-2 win from CMS' #1 team, Kristin Lim (SO. - Honolulu, HI) and Crystal Lim (FR. - Orange, CA) over Jamie Solomon and Kara Wang taking them to a record of 26-2 on the year.  The last doubles point was earned by Chloe Dobbert (FR. - Walnut Creek, CA) and Jessie Huang (FR. - Temple City, CA) (12-3) who eventually pulled out a close 8-6 win over Arthi Padmanabhan and Samantha Chao to give the Athenas a 2-1 lead going into singles action. 

The Athenas dominated singles play at the top two spots in the line-up and quickly went up 4-1 when K. Lim (27-3) defeated Solomon 6-1, 6-1 and C. Lim (20-6) beat Wang 6-0, 6-2. Dobbert (20-6) lost her #3 singles match to take the score to 4-2 before Jaclyn Smrecek's (9-4) aggressive but steady play clinched the win by defeating Nicole Holstead 6-3, 6-2.  Hannah Kornfeld ( SR. - Larkspur, CA) and Huang's singles matches were abandoned after the Athenas reached a total of 5 matches won.

The Athenas will continue play on Tuesday, March 24 against #2 Williams College when quarterfinals action resumes at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center at CMC.  The Athenas have not played in the NCAA quarterfinals since 2006, when they placed third in the nation.  Kristin Lim is one of 32 singles players from Division III schools across the nation who will compete for a national singles title and K. Lim and Crystal Lim are one of 16 teams who compete for a national doubles title.  Singles and doubles action will begin on Friday, May 27.