The Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women’s tennis teams wasted little time displaying the talent that makes them likely contenders in the SCIAC this spring. During the weekend of Oct. 3-4, the Sagehens and Athenas dominated the ITA West Regional Division III Championship co-hosted on campus at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center to wrap up the fall preseason. Around ten teams participated in the event, with mulitple SCIAC teams including Occidental College, Whittier College, the University of Redlands and California Lutheran University in attendance.
The setup of the preseason tournament provides a unique format that is different from what the teams are used to seeing.
“This tournament is different from the format we usually play during the spring season because it is an individual tournament rather than a team tournament, but in a lot of ways each person is still representing their team,” Sagehen team captain Lea Lynn Yen PO ’16 said.
Joy Kim PO ‘19 headlined the Championship with a perfect 6-0 record en route to winning the singles tournament title that included victories over All-Americans Caroline Ward CM '16 and Katie Kuosman CM '17. For her efforts, Kim was named SCIAC Female Athlete of the Week and is an automatic All-American heading into the spring season.
Kim’s excellent performance in her first collegiate tournament was not lost among her teammates.
“The highlight of the weekend was definitely [Kim] winning the whole singles tournament, beating the defending champion in the semifinals, and one of the best players in all of SCIAC in the final,” Yen said. “To do that as a freshman is remarkable.”
But Kim was far from the only one who performed well, as P-P athletes made up at least half of each round. In singles, eight Sagehens reached the round of 16, four made it to the quarterfinals, and two to the semifinals. Three double pairs made it to the quarterfinals, producing one runner-up finish by Maryann Zhao PO '18 and Emily Chen PO '18, who fell to the defending champions.
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