CMS Women's Soccer Earns Senior Day Win over UC Santa Cruz

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's soccer team honored its seven seniors prior to the game and then picked up a 1-0 win over UC Santa Cruz on Saturday morning at Pritzlaff Field.

Cate Lewison scored the game's only goal in the 12th minute with all seven seniors on the field after beginning the game in the starting lineup: goalkeeper Athena Manthouli, defenders Taylor Arakaki, Sam Ree and Olivia Tuffli, midfielders Lizzie Iwicki and Nicole Oberlag, and forward Caelyn Smith.

With the win, CMS improves to 7-5-4 on the year, including six shutouts in its last seven games, while UC Santa Cruz, which tied CMS in the first meeting at home 0-0 on Oct. 2, falls to 8-4-2. 

The only goal of the game was scored after CMS played the ball into the box. The Banana Slug defense tried to clear it out of the danger area, but it rolled to the top of the 18-yard box, where Lewison was able to one-time it inside the left post. 

Five minutes later, UC Santa Cruz came close to the equalizer, but Bronwyn Eyre's header hit the post and stayed out. In the second half, CMS had the most dangerous chances, as Kaitlyn Helfrich played Nithya Yeluri in behind the defense, but Alyssa Diaz-Tucker came off her line to make the save. Riley Zitar also ha da 25-yarder that forced Diaz-Tucker into a diving save, and Laurel Ovenell whistled a direct kick from 25 yards out that teased the right post but stayed wide. 

Manthouli and Sadie Brown combined on the shutout for CMS, which was the ninth of the year for the Athenas. They are also halfway to a possible 10th, which they will try to finish on Monday at Pritzlaff when they complete a suspended game with Cal Lutheran, which was halted last Saturday due to lightning with CMS ahead 1-0 at halftime.

After finishing the game with Cal Lutheran, CMS will close out the regular season at Whittier on Wednesday and at home against Occidental on Saturday.