Big Second Half Leads CMS Women's Lacrosse to Road Win at Redlands

REDLANDS, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team started the second half on a 5-0 run to create separation after holding a narrow 7-6 lead at the break, and went on to capture an 18-9 road win over Redlands on Wednesday evening to improve to 7-0 in the SCIAC this season.

With the win, the Athenas now stand at 11-2 overall and alone in first in the SCIAC with their 7-0 record. CMS has now won 31 straight games against SCIAC opponents, dating back to a loss to Chapman in the 2016 league semifinals. Redlands slips to 7-6 overall and 1-6 in SCIAC play with the loss.

Senior Corie Hack had five goals, and sophomore Sally Abel had four goals and an assist to lead the way for the Athenas, while sophomore Julia Mueller chipped in with a hat trick. Hanna Morford had a game-high seven goals for Redlands, accounting for 78 percent of her team's scores.

Redlands scored the final three goals of the first half to pull within 7-6 (two from Morford) after it seemed like the Athenas were taking control of the game, surging out to a 7-3 lead. The Bulldogs kept it a one-goal game for the first six minutes of the second half as well, before the Athenas struck for five goals in a span of 5:20 to quickly turn it into a 12-6 lead.

Hack started the run with 23:56 left in the game to make it an 8-6 game, before junior defender Kira Weiss scored 46 seconds later to extend it to a 9-6 Athena advantage. Abel and Hack scored exactly one minute apart at the 21:58 and 20:58 marks to put CMS ahead 11-6, and Abel capped off the 5-0 spurt with her fourth goal of the contest with 18:36 to go.

Morford answered Abel's goal 20 seconds later, but Mueller found the net with her second to extend the CMS lead to 13-7. Sadie Pickering scored for Redlands with 16:10 to go, but Hack's fifth (off the third assist from freshman Alex Futterman) stretched the lead to 14-8 with 14:35 left, starting a 3-0 run that put the game away.

Senior Maddie Geary had two goals for the Athenas, while junior Allie Hill tied Futterman for team-high honors with three assists. Junior Emma Johnson, junior Zoe Ryan and freshman Tessa Guerra also had goals for CMS. Freshman Emma Goldfield had eight saves to get the win, as the Athenas finished with a commanding 43-21 edge in shots, while Weiss had five caused turnovers and five ground balls to pace the defense.

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Chapman for a 1 p.m. contest.