Athenas Soccer Shutout Sagehens To Advance To Final

Claremont, CA - Thursday night on Pritzlaff Field the CMS Athenas defeated the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens by a final score of 3-0. Frequent changes of possession and key defensive plays dominated the field of play for its entirety, however it would be the Athenas who found a way to keep their season going.

Early on in the match, P-P appeared to have a more disciplined style of play in terms of ball control, creating a few attacks that brought them closer to the CMS goal. The goal would simply not come for the Sagehens as it would for Kerry Moller of CMS who netted the game's first goal in minute 29, putting away a low cross from Shaundra Ullman. The first half would come to a close with neither team finding a way to alter the score.

The second goal of the match came in the 59th minutes, as Madi Shove centered a corner kick ball that bounced through the six yard box and was put away by Lizzie Van Buskirk's far post tap in. Just over a minute later CMS put away the match clinching goal thanks to incredible field awareness and hustle from Madi Shove. A ball that initially appeared to be an easy pick up for Sagehen goalie Emma Wolfarth, slowed just enough for Shove to catch up to. As she moved past the defense, Shove and Wolfarth kicked and made contact simultaneously. The result would be Wolfarth struggling to maintain her footing, and Shove making a quick turn to score a well placed shot on the open goal.

There would be several opportunities for P-P to break the shutout on both of CMS' keepers, Molly Freed and Hannah Dunham, however, none were able to find the back of the net. Dunham provided an incredible diving save to maintain the shutout as time was winding down.

Both teams relied heavily on substitutions, with P-P using six subs and CMS calling on eight. Nine Athenas tallied shots, five Sagehens contributed to their team's shooting total.

Pomona-Pitzer ends their season with a 10-6-1 overall record, 7-4-1 in SCIAC play. The Athenas improve their record to 8-8-3 overall, 7-4-1 in SCIAC play. 

The Athenas return to action on Saturday evening at 7:00 to take on California Lutheran University at Cal Lu. Cal Lu defeated Redlands 3-1 on Thursday.