PASADENA, Calif. – The Caltech women's tennis team punched its ticket to the postseason Saturday afternoon with a decisive 6-1 victory over Occidental College.

"The score was not indicative of how competitive the match was," said Head Coach Rachel Viollet. "Our team really had to focus and fight to get the result we needed."

The team and several Women's Tennis alumnae joined to celebrate and honor the contributions of graduating senior Anna Szczuka (Scotch Plains, NJ / Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School) before what would be her final home match as a Beaver.

Szczuka and sophomore doubles partner Aoi Kunimoto (San Diego / Rancho Bernardo) started things off strongly for Caltech, posting the first doubles set win of the day with a 6-4 score. The remaining doubles matchups ended in Occidental's favor, though, so the pressure was on Caltech to catch up in singles play.

Sophomore Naya Kessman quickly replied with a near-flawless 6-1, 6-0 score on Court 5, evening the dual match with Oxy at 1-1. On the adjacent Court 6, first-year Tara Zhan (Vancouver, British Columbia / David Thompson Secondary) pulled Caltech ahead with a 6-2, 6-1 win.

Junior Hannah Ramsperger (Zürich / Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich) won her #3 Singles matchup with a 6-1, 6-2 score, which brought the Beavers one dual point away from a team victory. Shortly thereafter, sophomore Polaris Hayes (Robbinsville, N.J. / The Pennington School) secured a 6-1, 6-1 win on Court 4 to clinch the dual match and a winning record in SCIAC play.

Moments after the clinch, rain began to fall but the match resumed after just over a half-hour delay. With split sets on the top two courts, the matches would be resolved by 10-point (win by 2) tiebreaks in lieu of full third sets. Sophomore Carissa Gerung () defended her No. 10 ITA West Region singles ranking, rallying from a 7-5 loss in the first set with a 6-3 second set and a 10-3 breaker win.

And in true Senior Day drama, all eyes shifted to Court 2 where Szczuka had won her first set 6-3 but narrowly fell by 7-5 in the second. Facing a 9-2 deficit in the super tiebreak, she averted seven consecutive match points to tie the score, adding another point to pull ahead 10-9. her opponent equalized, but Szczuka won the next two to put 12-10 exclamation point on her regular season. The theatrical comeback secured Szczuka an individual winning record for singles this year, as well as for the team at #2 singles as no other Beaver battled in that spot all season long.

"I'm super proud of everyone," Coach Viollet said. "And our Senior Anna Szczuka winning her match after saving seven match points was the icing on the cake!"

The Beavers will take on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament Semifinals on Thursday, April 30 at 4:30 p.m.