CMS Women's Lacrosse Earns NCAA Bid, Faces George Fox Saturday at Pomona-Pitzer

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship and will open up play on Saturday against George Fox, the champion of the Northwest Conference, in a game held at Pomona-Pitzer.

The winner of the opening round game will move on to Sunday's second round against the host Sagehens with a trip to the NCAA Regionals on the line. Pomona-Pitzer earned an opening-round bye on the strength of their undefeated 17-0 record and SCIAC title, after they prevailed 15-11 in a tight battle with the Athenas on Saturday.

George Fox also enters the NCAAs with an undefeated record, standing at 17-0, including 12-0 in conference play (with 11 of the 12 wins by double digit margins). The Bruins played two non-conference games against SCIAC teams, defeating Occidental 16-12 and Redlands 19-6.

CMS heads into the NCAA Tournament with a 13-5 overall record, with three of the losses coming to Pomona-Pitzer, and the other two coming to top-15 teams TCNJ and Wesleyan. After falling 15-7 to the Sagehens on opening day in February, the last two meetings between the Sixth Street rivals have been close battles, with the April meeting at CMS going into overtime before Pomona-Pitzer won 16-15. The SCIAC finals was 13-11 late in the third, before the Sagehens held on for the 15-11 win. 

The Athenas will be making their fourth straight NCAA appearance, after earning the automatic bid from 2017-19 with SCIAC titles, prior to the two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. In 2019, they traveled to Amherst and put up a solid battle against the Mammoths before falling 14-8. 

Only three players are left on the Athenas who played in that game, including Alex Futterman, who had three goals and an assist. Futterman also had a hat trick in the SCIAC Championship game on Saturday, pushing her over 100 goals in her career (102). Alex Wilson also started on defense and had two caused turnovers, and Tessa Guerra came off the bench and had a ground ball. 

A win over George Fox would give the Athenas their first NCAA Tournament win since 2011, when they defeated Redlands in the opening round before falling to Gettysburg in the regionals. An opening-round victory would also set up a fourth Sixth Street rivalry game this season, and give CMS a chance to turn the tables after the Sagehens earned the win in the SCIAC finals. 

To view the complete NCAA field, view the link below.

NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse bracket