CMS Women's Lacrosse Takes Over Sole Possession of First with 9-5 Win at Pomona-Pitzer

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team built a big 7-1 lead at the half and held on in the second half for a 9-5 win over Pomona-Pitzer on Friday evening in a battle of teams that came into the day undefeated in SCIAC play.

With the win, the Athenas improve to 5-0 on the season, including 4-0 in SCIAC, while extending their winning streak against conference opponents to 28 games. Pomona-Pitzer suffers its first defeat as it falls to 4-1 overall (all in SCIAC games). 



Freshman Sammie Cohen led the way offensive for CMS with three goals and an assist, while junior Allie Hill added two goals and an assist and sophomore Sally Abel scored twice. Sophomore goalie Anna Gillespie had 10 saves to get the win in goal, while junior defender Kira Weiss had four caused turnovers and four ground balls. 

After CMS shut out Baldwin Wallace on Wednesday, it did not allow a goal against the Sagehens until just 9:07 remained in the first half, when their lead fell to 5-1. That ended a stretch of 98 minutes without allowing a goal, since Occidental scored with just over 18 minutes remaining on Saturday. 

The game was stuck in a 0-0 stalemate in the early going, before Cohen got on the board off a pass from senior Corie Hack 8:48 into the contest. Hack then converted a goal of her own when she cut down the middle and took a feed from behind the cage from senior Maddie Geary to make it 2-0 with 17:56 left in the half. 

WLAX: Goal Athenas! Geary finds Hack on a cut and Hack puts it away. 2-0 CMS with 18:11 left in half. pic.twitter.com/wvq6RULTrv

— CMS Athletics (@AthleticsCMS) March 9, 2019

Hill scored an unassisted goal just 1:19 later to make it a 3-0 lead, and Cohen scored her second goal of the game off a free position shot with 13:06 on the clock to stretch the lead to 4-0. With the Athenas playing down a player due to a yellow card, they managed to stretch their lead to 5-0 as Cohen found fellow freshman Alex Futterman with 12:37 to go until halftime. 

Pomona-Pitzer finally ended the CMS scoreless streak, but Abel responded with two straight goals, the second coming off a Hill feed, to make it a 7-1 game going into halftime. 

WLAX: Abel puts the Athenas back up by five, 6-1 with 8:12 left in the first half pic.twitter.com/cP6YsiBv1L

— CMS Athletics (@AthleticsCMS) March 9, 2019

Hill scored her second to open the second half scoring, and Cohen answered a Pomona-Pitzer goal with her third of the game to make it a 9-2 contest with 23:19 left. CMS would end up not scoring again, as the Sagehens closed out on a 3-0 run, thanks largely to goalie Annie Price, who had 17 saves. 

CMS finished the game with a 31-19 edge in shots, including 17-8 in the first half. The Athenas pressure defense also forced Pomona-Pitzer into only 17 successful clears in 27 attempts.

CMS will be back in action on Sunday, when it welcomes in Colorado College in another big rivalrly game. The Athenas are currently ranked No. 25 in the nation, with Colorado College No. 24, and the Tigers have knocked CMS out of the last two NCAA Tournaments.