CMS Women's Water Polo Splits One-Goal Games at Axelrood

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Cooper McKenna broke a 6-6 tie with the game-winning goal with 29 seconds left as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team took a 7-6 win over Concordia in its first of two games on Saturday at Axelrood Pool.

The Athenas nearly went 2-0, coming back from a 7-2 halftime deficit to pull within one goal against Brown, but falling 10-9. CMS moves to 11-8 on the year with the split, while seeing its seven-game win streak snapped with the loss to Division I Brown (the last four CMS losses have all been to Division I teams). 

The Concordia contest was low-scoring the whole way. Grace Clark put CMS up 1-0 on its first possession, but the Golden Eagles were able to take a 4-3 lead into halftime. 

Mia Adesn tied the score at 4-4, and Jessi Beyer closed out the third with a goal to tie the score 5-5. Adsen game CMS the 6-5 lead with 5:19 left on her third goal of the game, but Concordia was able to tie it with 1:47 to go, before McKenna scored another game-winner. 

Earlier this season, McKenna defeated La Verne on the first possession of sudden-death overtime, while last year she had game-winners against Cal Lutheran with one second left, and Whittier with just over a minute to go. 

Against Brown, CMS responded after falling behind 7-2 at the half with a 4-1 third quarter behind goals from Caitlin Muñoz, Isabel Del Villar, Adsen and Clark to make it 8-6 going in the fourth. Clark and McKenna had back-to-back goals to make it 9-8 with 5:10 to go, and the Athenas had about a half-dozen shots to tie it, but were unable to convert. Brown scored on a 6-on-5 with 13 seconds left to seal it, and Muñoz scored at the buzzer to make it a 10-9 final. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday when it travels to Caltech, before returning home to meet Whittier on Saturday at 1 p.m.