CMS Women's Lacrosse Fights Off Occidental for 12-6 Road Win

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team was challenged on the road at Occidental, which tied the score 5-5 early in the second half, but the Athenas were able to fight off the Tigers and pull away for a 12-6 win on Saturday to stretch their win streak against SCIAC opponents to 27 games.

With the win, CMS improves to 3-0 overall, all league contests, while Occidental falls to 2-2 overall and in SCIAC with the defeat. CMS has not lost to a conference opponent since the 2016 SCIAC semifinals against Chapman, a stretch of 27 straight wins. 

Senior Corie Hack led the way for the CMS offense with four goals, while freshman Alex Futterman and sophomore Sally Abel each had two. Freshman Sammie Cohen added a goal and a team-high three assists. Senior Nicole Greenberg got the start in goal and had seven saves in the first half, allowing only two goals to get the win. 

Hack scored her first two goals in the opening 10 minutes to stake CMS to a 2-1 lead. Abel then followed with her two goals back-to-back 4:10 apart to stretch the Athena lead to 4-1 at the 14:07 mark of the first half. After Occidental scored on a free position shot at the 12:33 mark, Hack scored again 1:26 later to complete a first-half hat trick and give CMS a 5-2 lead at the break. 

Occidental then stunned the Athenas with a wave of three goals over a span of less than two minutes to tie the score early in the second half. Shai Goodman assisted the first two goals 27 seconds apart, and then scored her own on a free position shot to tie the score with 25:39 left in the game. 

CMS quickly regrouped, though, and went on a 3-0 run of its own over a span of 3:26 to restore an 8-5 lead. Taylor Geary gave the Athenas back the lead with an unassisted goal at the 23:24 mark, and 2:04 later, Cohen assisted her older sister Emily to make the score 7-5. Futterman then scored her first of the game at the 19:58 mark to get the Athenas back ahead by three. 

Occidental came back with a free position goal with 18:16 left to make the score 8-6, but the Tigers wouldn't score again as CMS was able to lock down on the defensive end of the field. Sammie Cohen scored her first of the game with 8:43 left to make it 9-6, then assisted Futterman with 7:35 left to push the lead to 10-6. Sophomore Blaire Southmayd added another insurance goal, and Hack capped off her four-goal game in the final minute. 

After dominating their first two opponents statistically, CMS had to respond in a more even battle and were able to come through. The Athenas had just a 30-25 edge in shots, while Occidental had 10 free position shots to just one for CMS. Junior Kira Weiss led the defense with six ground balls, while junior Allie Hill had four ground balls and four caused turnovers. 

CMS will be back in action this week for three games in Claremont over a span of five days. The Athenas host a non-conference game with Baldwin Wallace on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and then travel to Pomona-Pitzer on Friday night for a first-place battle with the Sagehens. CMS will then cap off the busy stretch with a home game on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Colorado College in a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament game, which Colorado College won to give the Athenas their only loss to a Division III opponent during all of last season.