Claremont, Calif. - The top-seeded CMS Women's Tennis team got strong efforts from its top two players to earn a 7-2 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the finals of the SCIAC Championship Tournament on Saturday. 

The loss drops the Sagehens, ranked No. 10 nationally, to 14-6 on the season, although they should be in strong shape for an NCAA Tournament bid with all of their losses coming to top 10 opponents. 

Caroline Ward and Katie Kuosman combined for an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles and then took straight sets wins in singles to give the Athenas a 4-1 lead. The fifth point took some work, as No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 all went to a third set and No. 4 was in a second set tiebreaker, after freshman Grace Hruska fought off two match points to tie it up 6-6.

After Hruska took an early 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker, though, Lindsay Brown was able to come back and take it 7-5 for a 6-4, 7-6 win for the clinching point to take the pressure off of her teammates in their third sets. Freshman Emily Chen (pictured) earned a three-set win at No. 6 singles for the Sagehens for their second point, but Zhao and freshman Emily Kuo dropped their third sets to close out the scoring at No. 3 and No. 4.  

Pomona-Pitzer earned one point in doubles as sophomore Maddie Gordon and freshman Maryann Zhao prevailed 8-6 in a tiebreaker for a 9-8 win to prevent CMS from sweeping. 

The Sagehens will await their first round tournament opponent for the NCAA Division III Championships, which begin next weekend.