CMS Women's Lacrosse Secures Second Seed with 19-13 Win over Chapman

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team held off a comeback effort from Chapman to earn a 19-13 win on Wednesday evening at Zinda Field, clinching the second seed and the right to host a SCIAC Semifinal game next week.

With the win, CMS moves to 11-4 overall and 9-2 in the SCIAC, with one regular season game remaining, while Chapman, which could have pulled even with the Athenas with a win, slips to 10-5 overall and 7-4 in league play. 

Bella Lynch (three goals, three assists) and Cate Lewison (two goals, four assists) had six points apiece to lead the CMS offense, while Emme McMullen and Catherine Murphy added hat tricks as well. 

CMS jumped out to a 6-0 lead and appeared to be on cruise control, but Chapman was able to get all the way back to 9-7 at the half. The Athenas opened the second half on fire with three straight goals in a span of 1:27, as Emma Merk scored off a Lynch feed, Murphy scored off a pass from Lewison, and Lynch scored on a free position shot to make it 12-7 just 2:07 into the second half.

After Chapman closed to 12-8, Merk, McMullen and Lewison scored successive goals to push the lead up to 15-8 with 2:45 left in the third quarter. Chapman hung tough and got the lead down to five on three occasions, but the Athenas weren't seriously threatened down the stretch and came away with the 19-13 win. 

Merk and Hannah Conte had two goals apiece for CMS. Taylor Daetz had six draw controls, Lewison had five ground balls, and Jessica Sloan-Cooper had four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Kendall Chapko had nine saves in the first half to get the win, while Holly Shankle had six saves in the second half. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it closes out the regular season with a road game at Redlands, before hosting Chapman again next Wednesday in a SCIAC Semifinal game, which will begin at 7 p.m.