Women's Lacrosse Tames Tigers in Regional Showdown

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The No. 22 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team avenged a loss in the 2017 NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon by defeating the Colorado College Tigers 14-9 on the road. Sally Abel (CMC) led the Athenas scoring effort on the afternoon with three goals. Emily Cohen (CMC), Corie Hack (CMC), Allie Hill (CMC), and Hannah Graves (CMC) got in on the action, scoring two goals each in the important regional victory for CMS. Evan Murphy (CMC) followed up a seven assist performance on Wednesday with five assists on Sunday afternoon.

The first-half of the contest was relatively back-and-forth with the Athenas holding a slight edge thanks to consecutive goals from Sally Carlson and Emily Cohen when they trailed 1-0 in the early minutes. Carlson and Cohen's tallies made it a 2-1 CMS before the Tigers countered with a free position shot 10 minutes into the game to tie the score at 2-2. Just as they would do all game long, CMS quickly responded with a goal by Cohen less than a minute later to put CMS in the lead at 3-2.

Colorado College and CMS would trade the next four goals, before the Athenas would rattled off three-straight goals in the final five minutes to take a 7-4 lead with 26 seconds remaining in the opening half. Despite a goal in the final seconds of the period by the Tigers, CMS held a 7-5 lead at the break.

The Tigers' Steph Kelly scored in the opening minute of the second-half to make it a one-goal CMS advantage before the Athenas took control of the game with a four-straight goals in a six-minute stretch early in the half. Corie Hack and Allie Hill each scored two goals during the run and Evan Murphy handed out a pair of assists to put the Athenas in the driver's seat. The Tigers attempted to counter, scoring three of the next four goals to pull within three at 12-9, but defenses took over for the final 12 minutes.

There was a 10-minute break in scoring before the Athenas tacked on a pair of goals in the final three minutes. Sally Abel scored with 2:39 remaining off a pass from Blaire Southmayd (CMC) before Evan Murphy connected in the final 20 seconds to seal the 14-9 win.

The Athenas were stellar on the clear, going 21-23 on the afternoon. Their ride was strong as well, forcing nine Tigers' turnovers on the clear (14-23). Colorado College controlled the draw, winning 16 draw controls against nine for the Athenas, but CMS outshot the Tigers 38-25 in the game.

The victory improves the Athenas winning streak to eight games and CMS moves to 8-1 on the season. The Athenas will next take the field on Wednesday when they host Chapman at 7:00 p.m. on Zinda Field. CMS goes into the game 3-0 in SCIAC play, while the Panthers are 0-3 in the conference.