CMS Men's Water Polo Eyes DIII National Championships as 2019 Season Begins on Saturday at UCSD Triton Invitational
CLAREMONT, Calif. -- The CMS Men's Water Polo team enters the 2019 season with high expectations after being selected to finish third in the nation in the Collegiate Water Polo Association preseason Division III poll. The Stags return four seniors, seven juniors and a wealth of talented experience as they look to win the SCIAC after finishing runner up a season ago. The NCAA has expanded its playoff system to Water Polo for the first time in history and the Stags look to make history by qualifying as they open the campaign at the UC San Diego Triton Invitational on Saturday at 8 a.m. against UCSD.
The national ranking takes on added significance this season, which will mark the inaugural year of the NCAA Division III Men's Water Polo Championship. In the past, the SCIAC champion was either invited to the eight-team NCAA Tournament to compete against teams from all divisions or put into a one-game playoff for the right to qualify for nationals. This year, the NCAA will field a four-team Division III championship for the first time, with two teams from the SCIAC and two from the East Coast earning invitations.
Beginning with men's water polo in December of 2019, and followed by women's water polo in May of 2020, two teams from both the SCIAC and the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), will square off in a four-team Division III national championship tournament. The SCIAC will assume hosting responsibilities for both genders in the first year of the championship (2019-20). Hosting responsibilities will then rotate every other year.
The Stags are coming off a 16-11 season which saw them finish as the runner-up in the 2018 SCIAC Tournament after a third-place finish in the regular season, ending the year tied for second in the final CWPA Division III poll. Defending champion Pomona-Pitzer was picked first in this year's preseason poll, followed by Whittier in second, CMS in third and Cal Lutheran in fourth. MIT (fifth) and Johns Hopkins (eighth) are the two non-SCIAC teams to earn a spot in the national poll.
CMS was voted third in this year's preseason SCIAC vote with 66 points, defeated Whittier, 13-6 in the semifinals of the conference tournament before falling to Pomona-Pitzer by an 11-4 score in the SCIAC Tournament championship match. The Stags were selected to finish just three points back of the second-place selection Whittier (69 points), and Pomona-Pitzer received all nine first-place votes and 81 total points to lead the conference.
CMS has most of its leading scorers returning from a season ago including sophomore Will Clark, who finished with a team-leading 70 points split fairly evenly with 38 goals and 32 assists last season. Clark was named Second-Team Division III All-America by ACWPC, First-Team All-SCIAC, two-time SCIAC Offensive Player of the Week, and ACWPC All-Academic Superior selection in the classroom. He also netted a huge two-goal, one assist performance in a SCIAC Semifinal win over Whittier. Clark headlines a sophomore class that features six returners including Sam Harrison, who finished with 14 goals and eight assists, Eric Warmoth, who finished with 18 points (10 goals, 8 assists), and Andrew Wraith, who finished with six goals and six assists last season.
Senior Zack Rossman paced the Stags in the pool with 44 goals and added 22 assists to finish second on the team with 66 points. Rossman was a First-Team DIII All-America selection by ACWPC, First-Team All-SCIAC selection, AWCPC All-Academic Outstanding selection (3.7 GPA or higher), and received SCIAC All-Academic Team honors in the classroom. On top of those accomplishments, he had seven hat-tricks on the year, including a season-high four goals in a home win over Chapman, and scored a goal against No. 1 USC last year.
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Rossman is excited with the experience returning to the pool after finishing second in the SCIAC a season ago. "Well, thank god we have basically all returning starters this year. We knew last year was going to be a huge learning process. It's really all about just putting the ball in the back of the net. That's what saved us against Whittier, an eight-goal run, and that's what killed us against Pomona-Pitzer."
The senior continued. "We have some really great freshman this year that can contribute. Getting some playing time, getting some goals early on can really help us down the run." Rossman continued about the potential DIII National Championship finding a home at CMS. "I don't want to say it has taken any priority off of the importance of the SCIAC championship, but having a natty here and possibly at Claremont, we would love to have a trophy up in the athletics office and leaving our legacy would be awesome."
Both Clark and Rossman scored goals against Pomona-Pitzer in the SCIAC Championship match at Haldeman Pool. The Stags outshot the Sagehens 34-32 but went 1-for-10 on the powerplay in defeat to end an exciting run and 2018 season just short of the ultimate goal of winning the SCIAC.
Senior Ethan Lewis returns after finishing third on the team in points with 46 including 34 goals and 12 assists and 30 steals, a steal mark that was second on the team. Lewis was named First-Team All-SCIAC, Honorable mention All-America selection and All-Academic selection by AWCPC, and SCIAC All-Academic team honors. He scored the game-winning goal with three seconds left in a win over Navy, scored a season-high six goals in a SCIAC Semifinal win over Whittier.
Lewis spoke about the positive energy surrounding the Stags team. "This year we only lost one senior, a lot of new guys with a lot of the same talent that we had. I think we're only looking to get better, everyone has a chip on their shoulder and really hungry looking to get better and that's the mindset we have in the preseason. Working really hard."
The Stags routinely face nationally-ranked competition early in the year. Lewis focused on the positives of having such a tough opening stretch of games. "I think we can only gain from those games, there's nothing to lose there. Just play water polo. Feel ourselves out because those are the really early games of the season building on some tactics and seeing where we are physically. It's going to be tough but it's great to learn from those games."
After stellar offensive numbers a year ago, Lewis described what he is working to improve in preseason practice. "I really want to hone in on playing smart defense and sort of directing our defense to refine that moving forward. We are all best friends and returners so having that aspect of our game back is going to be a big pivot point for us is going to be huge."
Junior Christian Thornton makes his way back into the pool for the Stags after finishing last season with 24 goals and 13 assists, a mark that was fourth on the team. Thornton scored a season-high four goals against Redlands and had hat-tricks against nationally-ranked Princeton and Occidental. He has scored 42 goals over two seasons with the Stags and adds to the depth in the pool for the CMS Men's water polo team.
Thornton paced all juniors with his point totals last season and the Stags expect to continue to gain production from fellow juniors Koss Klobucher, who scored 24 goals and dished out 13 assists totaling 37 points, CJ Box, who scored 14 goals and dished out two assists, Nick Britt, who scored 17 goals and recorded five assists, Rob Driscoll, who finished just behind Thornton with 20 goals and tied in the point category after dishing out 17 assists, Sean Pine, and Eric Weiner saw minutes in all 27 games a season ago and round out the junior class.
Both goalies return as sophomores for the Stags after a 2018 campaign that put Matt Tran between the pipes as the starter for all 27 games. Tran finished with a 10-7 record with a .483 save percentage and a 9.75 goals-against average. Noah Smith played in all 27 games off the bench and finished 6-4 with a .516 save percentage and a 9.28 goals-against average. Overall the Stags allowed 257 goals against while scoring 270 goals as a team.
CMS will test itself this season against a number of opponents who are ranked in the top 20 national polls, including hosting two of the top seven teams in the country. An early-season match-up with No. 1 Southern California as part of the Inland Empire Classic will take place at Axelrood Pool on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 12 noon, while the Stags also host No. 7 Pepperdine as part of the Gary Troyer Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 5.
CMS opens the year at the UC San Diego Triton Invitational on Sept. 7, where it will meet the host Tritons (No. 9) and UC Irvine (No. 13) on its first day of competition, and also play No. 7 UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, Sept. 15 on the second day of the Inland Empire Classic.