CMS Women's Soccer Drops Non-League Contest to UC Santa Cruz

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's soccer team fell into an early 2-0 hole just over five minutes into the game and nearly battled back, but ended up falling 3-1 to UC Santa Cruz in a non-conference game on Sunday at Pritzlaff Field.

With the loss, CMS falls to 1-1 after defeating George Fox in its opener on Friday. UC Santa Cruz moves to 1-1 after falling in its opener at Pomona-Pitzer on Friday. 

Tori Holden scored her first collegiate goal for CMS on a 20-yard free kick in the 60th minute to cut the score to 2-1. CMS tried a shot from distance that was deflected by a hand ball by a UC Santa Cruz defender just outside the box. Holden then sent a hard shot past the wall, that UC Santa Cruz goalkeeper Amelia Brown got her fingertips to, but the ball had too much pace and hit off the crossbar and bounced in for her first collegiate goal.

The Athenas then kept the pressure on for the next 20 minutes, as Ava Schmitt nearly found an equalizer when her shot beat Brown, but Banana Slug defender Angela Bradbury was situated at the back post and was able to clear it away. Brown also had a big save on Schmitt from inside the right side of the six-yard box after a through ball from Annie McKinley, who had a defensive save for the Athenas to keep it a 2-1 game.  

Sydney Boyd was able to seal it for UC Santa Cruz with 8:05 left with her second of the game, when her shot from 25 yards out hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced over to make it a 3-1 game. 

Less than a minute into the game, Susanaitzel Juarez-Mancera scored for the Banana Slugs when CMS goalkeeper Sadie Brown had to come off her line to punch away a dangerous cross. Juarez-Mancera was the first to get to the loose ball just inside the penalty area, and rifled home a shot inside the right post to make it a 1-0 lead.

At the 5:10 mark, Boyd got on the back end of a through ball from Amanda Scott to make it 2-0. In between, Sadie Brown had a spectacular diving save to deny a header from Camille Anneet.

CMS was outshot 10-4 in the first half, but did a strong job of regrouping at halftime, and held a 9-8 edge in shots in the second half. 

The Athenas will be in action again this weekend when they travel to Texas to face Southwestern on Friday and Trinity on Sunday.