CLAREMONT, CA – Johns Hopkins rallied from a 3-2 deficit to beat host and second-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 4-3, on Tuesday afternoon in the NCAA Quarterfinals. The eighth-ranked Blue Jays improve to 16-7 and advance to the national semifinals for just the second time in program history, while the Athenas end their season at 18-4.
The last and only time Hopkins and CMS met in the NCAA Tournament was in the 2014 quarterfinals at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. And the result was the same. The Blue Jays won by one with the clinching match coming on court six.
Hopkins grabbed the doubles' point with wins at one and three to take the early lead.
Sydney Langer and
Sahana Madala earned the first win of the match when they beat Ella Brissett and Bell Zhou, 6-1, at three.
Jay Xiao and
Lia Melvin then secured the doubles point as they beat Rebecca Kong and Alisha Chulani, 6-3, at one.
Claremont battled back with three straight singles wins to take a 3-1 lead. Lindsay Eisenman got the Athenas on the board with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Langer at one. Kong won by the same score over
Ava Li at four to give CMS its first lead. Zhou pushed the lead to 3-1 when she beat Madala 6-3, 6-3 at five.
Lia Melvin answered with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 at three win versus Chulani to pull the Blue Jays back within one.
Sahana Sanjeev then rallied to beat Brissett 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 on court two to tie the match at three.
Just like 2014, all eyes turned to court six with a ticket to the national semifinals on the line. And just like 11 years ago, it was the Blue Jays upsetting the higher-ranked Athenas. This time, it was
Kamila Wong doing the honors with a pair of 7-6 wins. She won the first set tiebreaker, 7-1, and grabbed an 8-6 win in the second set tiebreaker.
Hopkins will now take on 16
th-ranked Washington University in Wednesday's semifinal. The match is scheduled for a 12:00 pm start.
Notes: Sanjeev broke the school single-season record for singles wins by a freshman with 22 • Sanjeev is also one win shy of tying the all-time single-season record • Madala tied the single-season record for doubles wins by a freshman with 20.
