CMS Volleyball Hosts Cal Lutheran Thursday Night for SCIAC Semifinals

Live Video
Live Stats
Tickets ($8 in advance, $10 at door - free for children under 12 or students with SCIAC ID)

CLAREMONT, Calif. - After the first undefeated SCIAC regular season in program history, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team will begin the postseason when it entertains Cal Lutheran on Thursday night for a 7 p.m. semifinal at Roberts Pavilion.

The SCIAC will charge admission for its championship events, with tickets available through Ticketleap in advance (Ticketleap link here), which are $8 for adults, or free for children under 12 (students with SCIAC ID also receive free admission). Tickets may also be purchased at the door for $10. The live video stream will be run through the SCIAC's web portal (SCIACtv).

CMS earned the top seed with a 16-0 regular season record in SCIAC, the first time the program has ever gone undefeated in league play, after three straight 15-1 seasons from 2017-19. The Athenas would also be guaranteed to host the championship game on Saturday if they advance, where they would meet the winner of the other semifinal, featuring third-seeded Chapman at second-seeded Pomona-Pitzer, which will take place a couple blocks north at Harvey Mudd's Linde Activities Center.  

The Athenas will be trying to win their fourth SCIAC Tournament title in a row, after winning every year from 2017-19 before the 2020 season was lost due to the pandemic. CMS defeated Cal Lutheran in both 2017 and 2018, and Chapman in 2019. In fact, CMS and Cal Lutheran met in the SCIAC championship match for six straight years, splitting them 3-3, with the Regals winning it in 2013, 2014 and 2016, and the Athenas capturing the title in 2015, 2017 and 2018, before Chapman broke the two-team stranglehold in 2019. 

CMS carries a No. 3 national ranking and a 25-1 overall record into the postseason, with the one loss a 3-1 defeat on the road to No. 6 Calvin on Oct. 22. The Athenas are 6-1 against nationally ranked teams this year, including beating the No. 1 (Trinity) and No. 2 (Emory) ranked teams in the country on the same day back in September at the East-West Battle, hosted by Cal Lutheran.

The upperclass players on the team who joined CMS in 2018 have compiled a 79-9 record in their three seasons, to go along with three SCIAC regular season titles and two tournament championships, around a one-year interrution due to the pandemic. They also have never lost a home match to a SCIAC team in their careers, standing at 28-0 at Roberts Pavilion against league foes in that span (including both regular season and SCIAC Tournament matches). 

CMS enters the postseason boasting a league-high five All-SCIAC award winners, which were announced on Monday. Jenna Holmes was named the SCIAC Newcomer of the Year and was joined on the first team by Melanie Williams and Audrey Sawyer, while Georgia McGovern and Jackie Jones were chosen to the second team.