Athenas Pepper Goalie, Earn Victory Over Bruins

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The No. 21 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team handled the visiting George Fox Bruins on Zinda Field to the tune of a 19-6 victory on Wednesday. CMS was relentless in their pressure of the Bruins and took a total of 43 shots in the contest against just nine for George Fox. Hannah Graves (CMC) led the offensive effort for CMS with four goals on five shots in the contest. Five other Athenas collected multiple goals in the game with Allie Hill (CMC) and Evan Murphy (CMC) each striking for three each.

The Athenas' defense was ruthless from the opening whistle, collecting 20 caused turnovers and forcing a total of 29 Burins' turnovers in the game. George Fox was just 13-23 on clear attempted in the game and, as mentioned, CMS allowed just nine total shot attempts in the game.

With nine shots allowed tonight, the Athenas have held opponents to under 15 shots in a game on eight different occasions this season, including four games where the opponent did not reach double-digit attempts.

Much like the stellar defense, the offense was cooking from the opening whistle on Wednesday as well. CMS scored the first five goals of the contest thanks to an opening tally from Graves, three-straight goals from Allie Hill, and an unassisted mark from Evan Murphy.

After the first shot of the night from the Bruins found the back of the cage, CMS continued to steadily grow their lead with goals from Mueller and Graves to take a 7-1 lead. Jess Hanson scored halfway through the period to make it a 7-2 game, but the Athenas countered with five of the final six goals in the period to take a 12-3 lead into the break. Sally Carlson (CMC) and Corie Hack (CMC) led the Athenas in the final 15 minutes of the half with two goals each.

After the break, Hannah Graves scored less than two minutes into the half to allow the clock to run freely with a 10-goal CMS lead at 13-3. Emma Fanger tallied less than two minutes later for George Fox to cut the lead back to single-digits at 13-4.

Graves responded with her fourth goal of the game off a dish from Allie Hill to put the Athenas in front by 10 once again at 14-4. Just seconds later, the Athenas tallied their most impressive goal of the night when Allie Hill grabbed the draw control after a timeout by the Bruins and sent a quick pass to Sally Abel (CMC) on the left side. Abel found Evan Murphy cutting from the right side for the one-time strike before the Bruins' defense could even get set.

Murphy's tally grew the Athenas' lead to 15-4 and CMS would not look back, cruising to a 19-6 victory. Kendall Greenberg (CMC), Eloise Shields (SC), and Mikaela Connell (CMC) all scored for the Athenas in the final 11 minutes of the second-half to seal the victory.

With the victory, CMS improves to 11-1 on the season and will next take the field against their toughest test in the SCIAC when the Occidental Tigers come to town at 1:00 p.m. on Apr. 7. The Athenas and Tigers have seen each other once already this season with CMS earning a 14-10 victory on the road at Occidental.