After a dominant season for Célia-Belle Mohr helped her earn a No. 13 national singles ranking, she shipped out to Stillwater, Okla. for the NCAA Singles Championships. Her run began with a quick win over No. 40 Dana Guzman from Oklahoma, who was forced to retire after Mohr jumped out to a 4-2 lead.
Her impressive run continued when she quickly defeated Pennsylvania’s Gala Mesochoritou, with a 6-0, 6-2 victory to send her to the Sweet Sixteen. She kept her hopes at a singles title alive after a come-from-behind performance against Oklahoma State’s Ange Oby Kajaru, ranked No. 3 nationally. After losing the first set 7-6 (8), Mohr responded with a dominant second-set performance, winning 6-1. The neck-and-neck final set between the two went to Mohr, 7-6 (7) to advance to the quarterfinals.
Things started smoothly for the third year out of Montagris, France, as she took the first set against Georgia’s Anastasiia Lopata, 6-4. Her run came to an end after two more close sets, as Lopata ultimately secured her spot in the semifinals behind a 6-4 second set and a 7-5 third set.
Singles wasn’t where Mohr’s success ended, as she also competed in the NCAA Doubles championships with senior Anessa Lee, her partner throughout the entire season.
The pair of Lee and Mohr, ranked No. 33 in the country, won its first match, 7-5, 7-5, over Pennsylvania’s Esha Velaga and Eileen Wang. The action continued on the next day, as the duo squared off against Stanford’s Connie Ma and Alexandra Yepifanova, ranked tenth nationally. The two stayed hot, defeating their Cardinal opponents 6-4, 6-0, in surprising fashion. This earned the Commodores a trip to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Mohr went up against a familiar opponent when she and Lee faced off against Oklahoma State’s duo of Kajaru (who Mohr had bested in singles a day before) and Anastasiya Komar. The pair won the first set, but dropped the second, ultimately winning the third-set super-tiebreak, 10-7, to advance to the semifinals.
Their run then came to an end, once again at the hands of the University of Georgia. Aysegul Mert and Dasha Vidmanova disposed of Mohr and Lee in straight sets to send them home. Despite the loss, the Commodores’ trip to Stillwater was more-than-positive: a singles quarterfinals and a doubles semifinals mark a successful finish for any program.
