CMS Men's Water Polo Cruises to 17-2 Win over Caltech in SCIAC Opener

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team used a 13-0 run spanning both halves and went on to capture a 17-2 win over Caltech in its SCIAC opener on Saturday morning at Axelrood Pool.

With the win, CMS improves to 4-5 on the season and starts out league play at 1-0, while Caltech slips to 5-4 and falls to 0-2 in the league. 

Sophomore Will Clark had three goals and three assists and first-year Michael Ballack added a hat-trick for CMS, which had 10 different goal scorers on the day. First-year Ben Weldon, junior Koss Klobucher and senior Ethan Lewis each added two for the Stags. Sophomore Eric Warmoth had three assists for CMS to tie for team-high honors, while also adding a goal. 

Clark opened the scoring for CMS 1:05 into the game, before Alex Janosi tied the score for the Beavers at the 5:52 mark. Caltech, though, would not get another goal until the second half as CMS pushed its lead up to 14-1 before the Beavers scored their second. 

Lewis scored two straight goals, both of which came off feeds from Clark, to make it a 3-1 game at the 3:22 mark. First-year Noah Weldon made it a 4-1 lead at the 1:39 mark of the first quarter, which is where it stood heading into the second frame. 

Clark opened the second quarter up with his second of the game, and then assisted Ballack for his third assist with 6:10 left in the second to make it a 6-1 game. Klobucher scored his first off a feed from senior Harrison Miller to make it 7-1, before adding another one on a 6-on-5 off a Warmoth feed to make it 8-1 with 2:51 left in the half. Junior Rob Driscoll capped off the first-half scoring with 1:09 left to give CMS a 9-1 lead at the break. 

Ben Weldon made it a 10-1 game in the third quarter, before Ballack scored his second off a feed from sophomore Sam Harrison. Weldon scored his second and Clark picked up his third to wrap up the third quarter, and sophomore Eric Warmoth scored to start the fourth quarter to make it 14-1 before Neil Sanderson ended the run with a goal for Caltech. 

Sophomores Noah Smith and Matt Tran split the day in goal with each playing a half, and both had six saves and allowed only one goal for the Stags. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts La Verne for a 7 p.m. contest at Axelrood Pool.