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Ethan Lewis (l) and Zack Rossman (r) action shots. An AWPCA logo is down the middle, along with the words All-America, Ethan Lewis first team, Zack Rossman second team
Posted: Dec 19, 2019

Ethan Lewis Earns First-Team All-America Honors, Rossman on Second Team for CMS Men's Water Polo

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior Ethan Lewis and Zack Rossman capped off their Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo careers by earning Division III All-America honors from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches, the organization announced this morning.

Lewis was a first-team All-America selection in a vote of the nation's coaches, while Rossman was selected to the second team. Sophomore attack Will Clark and sophomore goalie Noah Smith also earned honorable mention All-America distinction, giving the Stags four honorees in total. 

Lewis finished his senior season with a career-high 50 goals, twice earning the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Week Award. He had five goals in each of the two wins over Pomona-Pitzer, including the tiebreaking game-winning goal in the final minute of each. The second one came in the SCIAC Semifinals, when his goal from over 10 meters out as the shot clock expired gave CMS a 12-11 comeback win and sent them on to both the SCIAC Finals and the inaugural USA Water Polo Division III Championship. 

Rossman also had a big senior season, finishing with 37 goals and 29 assists, while also tallying 26 steals and 28 drawn exclusions. He scored twice in a match-up with No. 1 USC, and added a tying goal with three seconds left in a home overtime match with Pomona-Pitzer. In five meetings with national top 10 teams (UCSD, UC Irvine, USC, UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine), Rossman tallied 12 points on nine goals and three assists, scoring at least one goal in each of those contests. 

Clark was the leading scored for CMS on the season with 46 goals and 52 assists for 98 points, including seven points (three goals, four assists) in the big SCIAC Semifinal win over Pomona-Pitzer, matching his season-high set in an win over Concordia Irvine in February. After returning from an injury which kept him out of the line-up against USC and UC Santa Barbara, Clark scored at least one goal in every game, taking a goal-scoring streak of 24 matches in a row into next season. 

Smith started every game in goal for CMS and finished with a 9.21 goals against average and a .515 save percentage. He matched his season-high with 15 saves in the semifinals of the USA Water Polo Division III Championship and also added 13 saves in a narrow 5-3 defeat to Whittier in the championship, when he shut out the Poets in the second half. Smith was twice named the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week, including after a nine-save performance (with five in the fourth quarter) of a 9-8 regular season win over Pomona-Pitzer. 

CMS finished the 2019 season with an 18-12 record and advanced to the finals of both the SCIAC Tournament and the USA Water Polo Division III Championship. The Stags finished the year ranked No. 2 in the final CWPA Division III poll, behind only Whittier.