Tigers End 18 Year Drought, Defeat Athenas

BURBANK, Calif. (April 3, 2009) – For the first time in 18 years the Occidental College women’s tennis team defeated the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas, pulling out a 5-4 victory today at the Burbank Tennis Center.

Oxy opened strong taking two of three doubles victories. At No. 1 Krishnaveni Subbiah and Jennifer Wahba joined forces to pull out an 8-5 victory while the Tigers’ No. 2 duo of Taylor Kaplan and Marissa Cassman added an 8-4 win.

In singles action the freshman pair of Katrina Gould and Frances Hutton, who each have four-match win streaks, held off their opponents at the No. 5 and 6 slots, respectively. Gould cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 victory while Hutton posted a 6-3, 6-4 win.

With four victories in the book, Occidental looked to its ace, Subbiah, who added a 6-4, 6-2 win at the No. 1 singles spot, clinching the team victory.

The last time the Tigers beat the Athenas was back in 1991 when they won a pair of matches during the season by 7-2 and 6-3 margins.

After notching a doubles win, Cassman had her singles win-streak (six matches) snapped, falling 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 despite playing tough throughout the longest match of the day. At No. 4 singles, Kaplan was tied 6-7 (4), 6-2 before retiring due to cramping.

Also suiting up today for the black and orange was Stephanie Babij who teamed up with Hutton in the No. 3 doubles slot (8-5).

Occidental will be on the road tomorrow for their second Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match in as many days when they travel to Scholl Canyon to play the University of La Verne beginning at 9:30 a.m.