Video Tribute: The CMS Women's Soccer Class of 2021
As part of NCAA Division III week (Apr. 5-11), we will be honoring the senior classes for all 21 of our varsity sports. A number of our student-athletes elected to take a semester or a school year off and could return to action next season, but we have chosen to honor the senior classes as they would have been, without the COVID-19 interruption. The members of the Class of 2021 lost so much of what they had built towards in their first 2-3 years of competition when the pandemic hit, but still clearly left their mark on CMS Athletics.
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The CMS Women's Soccer Class of 2021 was a big part of program history when they helped the Athenas win an NCAA Regional Championship in 2019, advancing to the Round of 16 for the first time since the 2008 team won a regional title.
The Athenas earned a surprise bid to the NCAA Tournament after missing out on the SCIAC playoffs, using big non-conference wins over Pacific Lutheran and Illinois Wesleyan to impress the selection committee. Once in the tournament, the Athenas took down Emory 2-1 and then faced SCIAC rival Cal Lutheran, prevailing 4-2 on penalty kicks.
The Class of 2021 helped the Athenas show progressive improvement over their three seasons of competition. CMS improved from six wins in 2017 to eight wins in 2018 to 11 wins in 2019 to get the program back to its highest postseason level in its history.
The five members of the CMS Women's Soccer Class of 2021 are as follows:
#0 Cam Hamson (5-11, GK, San Diego, Calif. - CMC, Biology and Literature)
Hamson had a stellar career in net for the Athenas, including playing every minute as a sophomore while helping CMS to a stingy 0.55 goals against average. As a junior, their stats included an 8-3-2 record and an 0.63 goals against average, including five shutouts, none bigger than the one in the NCAA Regionals, when the Athenas played to a 0-0 tie and then prevailed 4-2 on penalty kicks. As a sophomore, Hamson also had a huge day with a career-best 11 saves in a 0-0 tie with Pomona-Pitzer.
#20 Aarthi Namasivayam (5-4, F, Birmingham, Ala. - HMC, Engineering)
Namasivayam was a versatile performer for the Athenas over her three years of competition, rotating between forward and oustide midfield positions for the team. She scored goals in all three seasons, including twice as a first-year, when she had the tying goal in the second half of a tight contest with La Verne. An engineering major at Harvey Mudd, she has also done Engman Fellowship research on traumatic brain injury treatments and has been a clinic team member at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
#12 Katrina Ostrom (5-8, M, Nashville, Tenn. - CMC, Biochemistry)
Ostrom played at both the defender and midfield positions over her three seasons with the Athenas. She had two goals and three assists, and came back after missing a month with an injury to play a big role in the CMS postseason run in 2019. She scored a go-ahead goal in the second half against WashU in the Round of 16 before the Athenas ended up falling in overtime. A SCIAC All-Academic selection, Ostrom graduated a semester early as a biochemistry major, doing her senior thesis this fall on "Physiological Roles of Mammalian Transmembrane Adenylyl Cyclase Isoforms."
#18 Grace Pratt (5-4, D, Exeter, N.H. - CMC, Neuroscience)
A two-sport athlete, Pratt had a big calendar year in 2019, helping the track and field team to a SCIAC title in the spring by reaching the finals in the 100 and 200 meters, and then playing center back on an NCAA Regional Champion soccer team. Pratt started 18 games on the CMS defense as a junior and was part of a unit that recorded 11 shutouts, including one in the NCAA Regional Championship. Pratt was voted on the United Soccer Coaches All-West Region team and has been a SCIAC All-Academic Team selection every year. She did her senior thesis on CRISPR-Cas9 Delivery Systems and the Blood-Brain Barrier: Potential for Graphene Oxide-mediated CRISPR Cas9/sgRNA delivery to Glioblastoma Cells
#2 Ava Sherry (5-6, D, Chicago, Ill. - HMC, Engineering)
Sherry was a key part of the CMS defense as a junior, stepping into the starting lineup on opening day. She started the first 13 games before being lost for the season with an injury, helping CMS record seven shutouts, including key ones against Pacific Lutheran and Illinois Wesleyan, which were crucial to the Athenas earning an NCAA bid. She also had the game-winning goal in a SCIAC win over Whittier, adding an assist on an insurance goal. Sherry is a SCIAC All-Academic Team selection while majoring in engineering at Harvey Mudd, and has been a quantum optics researcher on campus. She is also currently serving as hardware engineer at Lyft, where she interned last summer.