Balanced Attack Leads CMS Women's Lacrosse to 20-12 Road Win at Chapman

ORANGE, Calif. - Sophomore Sally Abel had five goals and one assist, and seven other players had two goals as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team fought off a first-half challenge from Chapman and pulled away for a 20-12 road win on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, the Athenas improve to 12-2 overall and 8-0 in SCIAC, stretching their win streak against SCIAC opponents to 32 in a row since falling to Chapman in the 2016 SCIAC semifinals. CMS can now finish in no worse than a tie for first place in the SCIAC with two games remaining and can clinch the outright title and the right to host the conference playoffs with a win in either of its last two home games against Occidental on Wednesday or Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday. 

Also in the two-goal club for CMS on Saturday were freshman Alex Futterman (two goals, two assists), sophomore Julia Mueller (two goals, one assist), senior Corie Hack (two goals, one assist), freshman Sammie Cohen (two goals, one assist), junior Allie Hill (two goals, one assist), junior Emma Johnson (two goals) and junior Emily Cohen (two goals). 

It took a while for the Athenas to find their stride, as Chapman held a 4-2 lead midway through the first half, but once CMS got going, the goals came fast and furious. The Athenas went on a 6-0 run, with the six goals coming over a span of just 6:47, to quickly turn the 4-2 deficit into an 8-4 lead. 

Emily Cohen started the run with her first goal with 15:04 left in the half, and Mueller tied it up at the 13:22 mark off a feed from Futterman. Just 24 seconds later, Abel gave the Athenas the lead at 5-4. The run then ended with three goals in a span of 43 seconds, with Sammie Cohen (9:00), Hack (8:39) and sophomore Taylor Geary (8:17) each finding the net. 

Chapman temporarily withstood the barrage and scored two straight goals to make it an 8-6 game, but Hack and Abel each scored in the final five minutes to make it a 10-6 lead going into halftime. 

CMS carried the momentum into the second half and pushed the lead to 12-6 on goals from Abel and Mueller. After Chapman scored twice 40 seconds apart to close to within 12-8, CMS scored three times in a span of 46 seconds, with Johnson scoring with 21:59 left and Futterman scoring twice in 18 seconds at the 21:31 and 21:13 marks to make it a 15-8 lead. 

The Panthers did fight back one last time to get the lead down to 16-11 with 14;24 to go, but Abel scored off a feed from Hill, and then the two teammates did the same thing in reverse with Hill scoring off Abel's pass to make it 18-11 with 9:34 to go. 

Freshman Maisy Mills and junior Kira Weiss each caused three turnovers to lead the defense, while Weiss finished with a team-high five ground balls. Alexadra Callaway led Chapman with four goals and an assist. 

CMS will return home on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to Zinda Field with the chance to clinch the SCIAC regular season title and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.