CMS Women's Lacrosse Catches Fire in Second Half, Runs Away from Chapman 16-3

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team was in a tight 5-3 contest early in the second half, but then scored the last 11 goals unanswered as it pulled away for a 16-3 win over Chapman on Wednesday evening at Zinda Field.

With the win, CMS improves to 6-1 on the season and 5-0 in the SCIAC, reaching the midway point of the conference schedule undefeated. The win was also the 29th in a row for the Athenas against SCIAC competition, including the last two conference tournaments. Chapman falls to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the SCIAC with the loss. 

Senior Corie Hack led the way for CMS with five goals, while sophomore Sally Abel had three goals. Freshman Sammie Cohen had two goals and two assists, and sophomore Julia Mueller also chipped in with a goal and two assists. 

Chapman hung close until early in the second half, despite a 5-0 first half run from the Athenas. After Lucy Schwartz scored the first goal of the game for the Panthers just 1:03 into the contest, Sammie Cohen answered 47 seconds later to start the 5-0 run, which included a goal and an assist from freshman Alex Futterman and was capped off by a goal from junior Sascha Reynolds with 7:48 left in the half. 

Chapman's Emily Allen had the last goal of the first half with 5:58 remaining, and Alexandra Callaway scored on the first Chapman possession of the second half to make it a 5-3 contest. The two leading scorers for the Athenas then took over with a rapid-fire shooting gallery, combining for seven goals in a span of 6:27, with Hack scoring four of them and Abel scoring three to turn it into a 12-3 game with 21:50 left.

Abel started the run with an unassisted goal at 27:17, which was followed by Hack at 26:36 off a feed from sophomore Blaire Southmayd. Hack scored again on a free position shot at 25:45, and freshman Julia Mueller, who scored a goal in the first half, followed with two straight assists on assists in front of the cage, the first to Abel at 24:26 and the second to Hack at 23:53. Cohen then assisted on the final two goals in the spurt, finding Abel at the 22:37 mark and Hack at 21:50.

Cohen then scored her own goal at 19:55 to make it a 10-goal lead at 13-3, before her older sister, Emily Cohen, tallied with 15:55 remaining. Sophomore Taylor Geary and freshman Tessa Guerra closed out the scoring with unassisted goals.   

CMS finished with a 37-10 edge in shots, as Preetha Raj had 13 saves in the Chapman net, while sophomore starter Anna Gillespie and freshman reserve Emma Goldfield each only had one for CMS. 

The Athenas will be back in action when they head to the East Coast for a pair of games against New Jersey teams over spring break, taking on Montclair State on Sunday at 12 noon and Kean College on Tuesday at 3 p.m.