Strong midfield play puts Athenas past Colorado

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The high winds had no effect on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team as the Athenas (9-1, 5-0) prevailed in a tough 15-11 victory over Colorado College (11-2, 0-0) on Saturday afternoon. The Athenas' midfield did a solid job dictating the game's tempo, moving the ball well in transition and keeping possession. The Tigers could not play their usual fast-paced offense and found themselves playing keep-up for most of the game while juniors Katie Hill (CMC) and Evan Murphy (CMC) did well reading the opposing attack and breaking up the ball movement.

Junior Lauren Clubb (CMC) led the Athenas with four goals and three assists while freshman Emily Cohen (CMC) also netted four. Murphy and freshman Kira Weiss (CMC) combined for 11 caused turnovers while freshman Allie Hill (CMC) added three goals with two assists. Steph Kelly scored four goals and had two assists for the Tigers and her teammate Mary Taussig scored three.

The Athenas opened up the game with a goal by Clubb thanks to a crossing pass from Allie Hill, but the Kelly found Taussig by the CMS net twice in a row to make it 2-1, Tigers' lead. With 25:26 left in the half, the Athenas scored four goals over the course of six minutes, including a darting solo run from Clubb off a draw control to give CMS a 5-2 lead. The Tigers tightened up on the defensive end and gave the Athenas a small window to get a shot off. After scooping up a bad pass from the Athenas, Kelly raced to the offensive end to complete a clear attempt. The Tigers wasted little time to bring more players up on the attack and Sadie Cole broke the drought. Kelly added another a minute later to cut the lead to one.

CMS settled down and reorganized on defense, creating turnovers and moving the ball well in transition. With 7:37 left in the half, Clubb found Murphy to bring the lead back up by two and Cohen added one more to make it 7-4. The Athenas continued to push the ball forward on offense, but saw their shots repeatedly denied by goalie Remy Wells. Wells finished the game with 14 saves.

The second half started off as a back-and-forth affair between the two teams as the Athenas tried to extend their lead. Ahead 11-8 with 13:41 left in the game, the freshman Hill launched a laser off a free position attempt to give CMS a 12-8 lead. Natalie Shishido took one back four minutes later, but Murphy scored off a solo attempt to bring the lead back up by four. With 6:37 left, sophomore Corie Hack (CMC) scored on an unassisted effort to extend the Athenas' lead to five and the team never looked back.

The Athenas will hit the road to play their second meeting against Redlands on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m. In their last meeting, CMS won in a lopsided effort, 13-3.

Box Score

By Young Kim
Sports Information Assistant

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