The CMS Journey

Hello all. D3ASW here. D3AS is so proud of his Middlebury Journey article that we decided that we should do one for the triumphant CMS seniors on the women’s side! And by “we”, I mean that he told me to write it and I was like, “Sure, sounds like something I’d do at 2am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning.” So here I am. I ran out of snacks so it’s time to write.

This article features the journey of the seniors of our CMS Championship team. Huge congratulations to them on both their championship and graduation! Although the class of 2018 entered as a fairly large recruiting class, the diamonds in the rough were Lindsay Brown and Kyla Scott, who both played in the lineup in singles and doubles this year. The other seniors who entered with Brown and Scott are no longer listed on the roster, so forgive me if they were still on the team this year working their butts off at practice and contributing to matches with their voices. I really have no way to know aside from the online roster.

I want to start by saying this was an incredible championship victory for CMS. It wasn’t completely out of left field but they were far from favorites. This was expected to be a William/Emory slugfest, as Emory and Williams combined had won 16 of the last 17 titles! That means Emory and Williams have been doing this dance as long as some of the current freshmen have been alive. That’s a lot of titles.

The CMS seniors this year truly embody the spirit of team tennis. As we will see, they have been rocks mostly at the middle of the singles lineup, but have both played at almost every spot depending where their team needed them. All four years, they contributed in both singles and doubles. Brown also achieved All-American status in doubles her junior year and in both singles and doubles this year (despite playing #3 singles!). Without further ado, let’s take a look at their journey.

2014-2015 Season

We begin our story in the 2014-2015 Season. This was head coach David Schwarz’s first season with the Athenas after coaching the Brown University men’s team from 2010 – 2014 and coaching at Middlebury for a decade before that, earning 2 NCAA titles in the process. The recruiting class from their 2014-2015 roster is below:

• Lindsay Brown, #221 in the Nation, 3 Star Recruit
• Bria Smith, #259 in the Nation, 3 Star Recruit
• Lauren Livingston #371 in the Nation, 2 Star Recruit
• Kyla Scott #428 in the Nation, 2 Star Recruit
• Samantha Nuno, Unranked, No Stars

This was a larger incoming class than usual for the Athenas but most of the freshman saw considerable playing time. In singles Lindsay Brown played at #4, Kyla Scott played #5, and Bria Smith played #6. Kyla Scott debuted at #2 doubles and Lindsay Brown teamed with Lauren Livingston and Bria Smith at the #3 doubles position. At this point, CMS had been a team on the rise for the previous couple of years and were firmly inside the top 5, though they weren’t exactly in the championship conversation. They eventually finished 4^th at NCAAs (back when they played a 3^rd/4^th match), falling to Emory 5-1 in the semifinals and then to Amherst 5-1 in the consolation match.  Despite making up half of the starting lineup and obviously making a huge impact on the team, none of the freshmen saw action in the individual tournaments this year.

2015-2016 Season

CMS went into 2015-2016 Season in the same place they left off – certainly Top 5 but not really in the discussion to win it all. They had lost lineup staple Sarah Kukino but brought in two new freshman (neither of whom were in the championship lineup this year). This season, Brown moved up to #3 singles while Scott moved up to #4 singles. Smith stayed at #6 singles. Scott remained at #2 doubles with Freshman Jessie Cruz while Brown and Smith held down the #3 doubles spot.  This season was actually a bit of a let-down for the Athena’s, as they fell to Bowdoin 5-1 in the Quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament and eventually finished the year ranked 5 in the Nation. Interestingly, this was the last year that Pomona-Pitzer managed to beat CMS, with a 5-4 win during regular season play. Although the Athenas would later avenge their loss in both SCIAC play and in the NCAA tournament, this loss just reflects what a fairly average year this was for CMS. Senior Caroline Ward and Junior Katie Kousman made it to the finals of the NCAA Doubles tournament, but again our 2018 seniors did not see any post season individuals action despite their huge presence in the lineup.

2016-2017 Season

Last season was head coach Schwarz’s third season and our 2018 seniors’ junior season. We saw the addition of Nicole Tan and Catherine Allen to the CMS lineup, which was certainly a step up from the previous season despite the loss of Caroline Ward to graduation. This season was also the first time in at least recent history (maybe ever?) that CMS achieved the #1 ranking, due to a 6-3 victory over a spring-breaking Williams team. Interestingly, for most of the season Kyla Scott played #1 singles (though she saw limited success against top 10 teams). This year Brown held down the bottom of the lineup, primarily seeing singles action at #5 and #6 singles. In terms of doubles, this year saw the start of the Brown/Tan partnership at #1 doubles, and Scott played at #3 doubles. Despite their mid-season success against Williams, they fell to Emory in the semifinals of NCAAs, who then fell to Williams in the championship match. The Athena’s finished the season ranked #3 in the Nation. Additionally, Brown achieved doubles All-American status with then-freshman Tan by reaching the finals of the NCAA Doubles tournament and ranked #2 in the Nation. Scott finished the season ranked #22 in the nation in singles.

2017-2018 Season

And we find ourselves at this year! With the success of Tan and Allen in singles and Tan/Brown in doubles, the Athenas were feared, but in the wake of Williams and Emory were not championship favorites by any means. Their entire season was great but typical; they earned their #3 ranking with wins against every team in the top 10 not named Williams or Emory. During regular season play they lost 5-4 heart breakers to both Williams and Emory on their home courts.

They cruised through Pomona-Pitzer multiple times this season, including a 5-0 win in the Round of 16 of the NCAA tournament. In the quarterfinals, they were then faced with an MIT team fresh off an upset over Tufts and took advantage of their “just happy to be here” attitude to run past them 5-0. They then had a dogfight with Williams in the semifinals, going down 1-2 after doubles and trailing 1-3 at one point in the match. However, Brown was able to halt William’s momentum with a win at #3 singles, followed by wins at #6 singles, #2 singles, and finally #5 singles by freshman Rebecca Berger to clinch the match. Scott was the only unfinished match at #4 singles.

The following day CMS took the court for their first ever Championship match in school history. Emory was the slight favorite but looking vulnerable. Like the day before, the Athenas went down 1-2 after doubles, but really they had Emory right where they wanted them. Playing her last collegiate match, Scott must have had a hail Mary moment on a changeover and pulled out a huge 3 set win over Anna Fuhr at #4 singles, evening the match at 2-2. Emory and CMS then traded wins, including a close loss for Brown at #3 singles, until the match was tied at 4-4. It came down to #5 singles, but fortunately for CMS, Berger had been in the same situation only the day before and earned a comfortable two set victory.

This was the Athenas’ first championship in program history. What’s extra remarkable is that coming into NCAAs, this was a Williams/Emory show. CMS had been close against both teams earlier in the season but close didn’t cut it then, and post season play is where Williams and Emory have historically peaked. What’s even more remarkable was that CMS had to take down BOTH Williams and Emory on back to back days! It would have been so easy to be content with upsetting Williams and come back the next day against a little complacent against Emory, but the CMS ladies decided to believe that they could win the whole thing. And they did!

Brown finished out her career as a dual All-American. In the NCAA doubles tournament, she and Tan were upset in the quarterfinals by a hungry Amherst team. In the singles tournament, she won a round against Claire Handa to cement her status as an All-American.

El Fin

I don’t have any sentimental tweets to share with you here, but all the same, Lindsay Brown and Kyla Scott should be immensely proud of their accomplishments over their 4 years. While we unfortunately lost some of their classmates along the way, these two seniors have experienced the ups and downs of college tennis and now get to ride off into the sunset on a high. As I said earlier, these girls have played in almost every position in the lineup. Brown developed from a #4 singles/#3 doubles player to a dual All-American this year. Scott shot up the lineup between her freshman and junior year, and this year was basically a guaranteed victory at #2 doubles. Both girls’ experience showed as they won important matches in immensely pressure-filled situations. In the words of D3AS, the journey is real. Once again, huge congratulations to these women and their teammates for their first ever NCAA championship in program history! I know that their experiences with college tennis will serve them well out there in the real world, and I wish them the best of luck with all future endeavors. At the very least, they get to tell everyone they meet that they are NCAA champions.

-D3ASW