John Carroll University junior Lauren O'Malley advanced to the round of 16 before concluding her run at the 2018 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships, hosted at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, California.

O'Malley, who was unseeded, faced Cori Sidell of Carnegie Mellon University in an opening round match of the 32-player draw on Thursday. The two had met earlier in the season in a dual meet in Pittsburgh, where O'Malley prevailed in three sets.

In today's opening round battle which was delayed by morning rain, O'Malley broke Sidell's serve late in the first set to produce a 6-3 win. But Sidell was able to jump out and win four of the first five games of the second set in an effort to square the match.

O'Malley, however, was up to the challenge and ripped off five straight games to close out the contest for a 6-3 6-4 victory over Sidell.

By virtue of winning her NCAA first round tournament match, O'Malley earned ITA All-American honors for the second consecutive season.

O'Malley then moved on to play the #6 seed Catherine Allen of host and 2018 team national champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a second round match Thursday afternoon. After a slow start in which she did not win a game in the first set, O'Malley settled in and battled Allen in the second set. At one juncture, the score was 4-4 and the players were on serve. But in the 10th game of the set, O'Malley fell behind on her serve and was broken to end the match at 6-0 6-4.

O'Malley ends the 2017-18 campaign with a record of 23-5 this season in singles play and had won 15 consecutive matches before falling to Allen, who is the #2 singles player on the Athena's national championship squad. O'Malley is also 77-7 in her career as a singles player at John Carroll.