Rossman, Lewis Earn First-Team All-SCIAC Honors, Clark, Smith on Second Team

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Seniors Zack Rossman and Ethan Lewis earned first-team All-SCIAC honors for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team, while sophomores Will Clark and Noah Smith were chosen to the second team the league office announced today.

Rossman and Lewis have been the senior leaders for a CMS team that enters postseason play with a 16-10 record and an 11-3 record in conference matches, good for the No. 2 seed in the SCIAC Tournament, which gets underway this evening with Pomona-Pitzer visiting the Stags at Axelrood Pool. Clark, meanwhile, has stepped up as the team leader in points as a sophomore, while Smith has played the majority of minutes in goal for the Stags this season. 

Rossman has totaled 33 goals and 27 assists for 60 points this season, raising his career totals to 156 goals and 232 points. He has also drawn 25 exclusions, ranking second on the team, and has contributed 22 steals defensively. He enters the postseason with an eight-match goal-scoring streak and has had two five-point games against Concordia and SCIAC regular season champion Whittier. 

Lewis has registered a team-high 45 goals this season, with 31 of them coming in 14 conference games, reaching the 100-goal mark for his career earlier this month (despite playing goalie as a sophomore) and now standing at 112. He has also chipped in for the Stags with 21 steals defensively. He enters the postseason on an 11-match goal scoring streak, including a season-high five in a one-goal win at Redlands, and four against Pomona-Pitzer in a 9-8 win, notching the game-winner with just under two minutes left. 

Clark is the leading scorer for the Stags with 40 goals and 46 assists for 86 points, while leading field players with 28 steals. He has scored in each of the last 20 matches he has played in, tallying a season-high in points with seven (four goals, three assists) in a win over Concordia. His last six contests have seen him score at least two goals, including four goals and two assists in a win over Chapman, and a hat trick with one assist in a win over Whittier. 

Smith started all 26 games in goal for CMS and compiled a 16-9 record, 211 saves, and a .510 percentage. He finished the regular season with a 9.07 goals against average, which lowers to 7.76 in SCIAC contests. He was twice named the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week, including after a road win over Pomona-Pitzer when he had five of his nine saves in the fourth quarter. 

CMS enters the SCIAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed against No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer at 7 p.m. this evening at Axelrood Pool, after the two neighboring rivals split their two SCIAC meetings in the regular season with each team winning by one goal. The winner will advance to both the SCIAC Finals on Sunday (11 a.m.) against either Whitter or Redlands, and the USA Water Polo Division III National Championship, in which the two SCIAC finalists will meet up against two teams from the Collegiate Water Polo Association in a four-team tournament.