CMS Volleyball Celebrates Senior Day with 3-0 Sweep of Pomona-Pitzer

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team honored its four seniors prior to the match, and all four came through with strong contributions as the Athenas took a 3-0 sweep of Pomona-Pitzer on Friday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

Set scores were 25-21, 25-12, 25-18 as the Athenas earned the win to improve to 21-3 overall and 12-1 in the SCIAC, moving into sole possession of first place in the league after Chapman fell to 11-2 with a loss at Cal Lutheran. 

Lina Aluzri, Phoebe Madsen, Sarah Tritschler and Amanda Walker were celebrated prior to the match for their careers, which has included a national championship in 2017, and 102 total wins in four seasons (102-16). All four responded with strong efforts, with Walker leading the Athenas in kills (13), Madsen leading in assists (20) and Tritschler and Aluzri finishing 1-2 in digs (16 and 13, respectively).



"All of us were so excited this whole week just to play tonight," said Aluzri, "especially against Pomona, we have that little rivalry there. From the start of the day, from the start of our warmup, everyone was super focused and really excited."

Madsen was close to a triple-double in the three-set match, finishing with eight kills, 10 digs and 20 assists while hitting .389. Sophomore Jackie Jones also had an efficient day swinging with nine kills in 16 attempts for a .438 hitting percentage. 

The Athenas had control of all three sets, but had to withstand a late rally from Pomona-Pitzer in the first to hold on for a 25-21 win. CMS led 20-11 on a kill by Jones, before the Sagehens came all the way back to within 22-21 with a 10-2 run. Madsen, though, stepped up with two straight kills, and junior middle Melanie Moore finished off the set with a kill for the 25-21 win. 

CMS dominated the whole way in the second set, jumping out to a 9-2 lead and going on to a 25-12 win. CMS held Pomona-Pitzer to a negative hitting percentage in the second (four kills and seven errors), and closed out on a 6-0 run with Jones contributing a block and a kill back-to-back during the spurt. 

The third set was close early, with the Athenas holding an 8-7 lead before a 7-0 run essentially put the match away. Walker accounted for four of the seven points with kills during the stretch, and the Athenas were able to keep a healthy lead the rest of the way, finishing off the match on a kill from junior Regan Dinovitz. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow when it travels to Occidental for a 6 p.m. contest, before returning home to face Redlands next Tuesday. Wins in both those matches would clinch the top seed and the right to host the conference tournament, even before the season finale at La Verne on Nov. 2.