CMS Women's Lacrosse Takes 17-7 Road Win over Redlands

REDLANDS, Calif. – Emma Merk had five goals and Bella Lynch added three goals and two assists as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team cruised to a 17-7 road win over Redlands on Wednesday evening at Farquhar Field.

With the win, CMS improves to 10-4 on the season and 8-2 in the SCIAC, clinching the second seed in the conference tournament and a home semifinal game on Wednesday, May 4. Redlands drops to 4-9 overall and 3-6 in SCIAC play with the loss.

CMS scored eight goals in the first quarter, thanks in large part to its dominance on draw controls, led by Alex Futterman, who won nine draw controls in the first stanza alone, before finishing the game with 15, helping the Athenas to a 22-6 advantage in that category.

Olivia Carey and Catherine Murphy tallied goals 28 seconds apart to open the scoring (with a Futterman draw control in between), to help CMS take a quick 2-0 lead. After Redlands got on the board, Murphy and Lynch scored goals 23 seconds apart (again with a Futterman draw in between) to stake CMS to a 4-1 lead with 8:42 left in the first quarter.

Lynch and Rachel Leonardi then scored goals 40 seconds apart to make the score 6-1 with exactly 5:00 left in the first quarter, before Tessa Guerra and Emma Merk closed out the opening stanza with goals, both of which were assisted by Lynch, to make it an 8-2 CMS lead going into the second.  

The second quarter was much lower scoring, as each team only scored once, with Leonardi scoring the only tally for the Athenas on an unassisted goal off a turnover, making it a 9-3 game at the half.

CMS got its offensive clicking again after intermission, though, with Lynch, Carey and Taylor Daetz all scoring in the opening four minutes to give CMS a 12-3 lead. Merk then answered a pair of goals from Joren Fettig of Redlands with a pair of her own to complete a hat trick, before tacking on two more in the fourth. 

Leonardi, Carey and Murphy each had two goals and an assist for the Athenas, while Futterman had a goal and two assists to go with her 15 draw controls, while Alicia Lamkin led with four ground balls. Holly Shankle had six saves to get the win in goal. 

The Athenas will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Cal Lutheran for a 1 p.m. contest, before closing out the regular season at home on Saturday, April 30 against Whittier, which will also be Senior Day for the program's seven seniors.