Allie Hill (CMC) in the opening faceoff. (photo credit: Matthew Fenton)
Allie Hill (CMC) in the opening faceoff. (photo credit: Matthew Fenton)

Strong Start and Massive Run Lead Athenas Past Panthers

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The No. 20 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team continued their dominant start to the 2018 season on Wednesday night, defeating the Chapman University Panthers 18-9 to improve to 9-1 overall and 4-0 in SCIAC play. Sally Abel (CMC) led the Athenas with six goals and Evan Murphy (CMC) added three goals and dished out a trio of assists. Emily Cohen (CMC) led the Athenas with six draw controls and tied for the team-lead with four ground balls.

It was the Panthers who struck first when Stacey Zuppa scored a minute and a half into the opening period, giving Chapman a quick 1-0 lead. Abel got her night started a minute later, finding the back of the net on a free position shot to even the game a one apiece. CMS kept the momentum on their side, scoring three goals within a 30 second span beginning with a goal from Corie Hack (CMC) at the 26:08 mark. Murphy and Allie Hill () followed up Hack's tally to make it a 4-1 less than five minutes into the contest.

Chapman scored the next two goals, cutting the CMS lead to 4-3 with 18:50 to play in the half. The completion of the game changed completely thanks to seven-straight goals from the Athenas to end the half. Cohen got the run started with 18:02 remaining in the half before assisting on a Hannah Graves (CMC) goal just minutes later. Abel provided three tallies in the run and Hack and Maddie Geary (CMC) each found the back of the net as well. The first half closed with CMS leading 11-3.

The Athenas opened the second period with a man-up advantage, giving Murphy the perfect opportunity to extend the CMS streak to eight goals, scoring her 16th goal of the season less than two minutes into the period. After Chapman connected 30 seconds, later Murphy was at it again scoring the first goal of a 4-0 run. Sally Abel tallied twice and Mia Prine (CMC) connected for one to give CMS a 16-4 advantage. A Chapman goal by Leah Donnelly with 17:42 left in the period ended a 12-1 scoring run for the Athenas that lasted a little over 28 minutes.

The Panthers scored five of the next six goals, cutting the CMS advantage to 17-9 with 1:52 remaining in the game. The Athenas shut the door on Chapman with a goal from Kendall Greenberg (CMC) in the final seconds to cap off an 18-9 CMS victory.

CMS outscored the Panthers 11-3 in the first half before playing a near even second half. The Athenas were a perfect 12-for-12 on clear attempts and collected 29 groundballs compared to Chapman's 14.

With three assists on the night, Murphy is now tied for the SCIAC lead in assists on the season with 21. She leads the conference in groundballs with 42 and caused turnovers with 39.

As a team, the Athenas lead the SCIAC in goals scored at 148, groundballs (287), and caused turnovers (203).

CMS continues conference play on Saturday when they host Redlands at Zinda Field at 1 p.m.