CMS Volleyball Hosts Pacific Coast Classic Friday-Saturday to Begin 2021 Season
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CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team opens up its 2021 season when it co-hosts the annual Pacific Coast Classic at Roberts Pavilion on Friday and Saturday.
The Athenas start the tournament off on Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. against UC Santa Cruz, and also faces St. Norbert on Friday night at 4:15 p.m. On the second day of the tournament on Saturday, CMS faces Eastern Nazarene at 11:45 a.m. and closes out the event on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. against Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
The Pacific Coast Classic is an annual season-opening showcase event, hosted by CMS, Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne. Of course, it skipped a year in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated the entire fall season, and the PCC this year will represent a welcome return to competition for the nine teams which will be competing at Roberts Pavilion.
CMS enters the new season ranked No. 10 in the country, looking to continue a proud run of success that has seen it finish in the top 10 in the final six national polls, including No. 1 in 2017, when it won the national title. Two years ago, the Athenas went into the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 5, but were assigned to a tough regional at the University of Chicago and fell in five sets to No. 3 Carthage.
Heading into the offseason, the Athenas were hoping to use that tough loss as motivation to make a deeper run in the 2020 NCAA Tournament, but the pandemic took that opportunity away. CMS then lost another talented class to graduation this past spring, including both starting middles (Melanie Moore, Regan Dinovitz), outside hitter Lucila Grinspan and setter Jessica Lee, but the Athenas begin the new year with a talented roster and the same high expectations that have been a staple of the program for the last decade.
Senior Jackie Jones is the one starter returning from the 2019 team, but there are some other experienced players around her. Senior Makenna Fall was a regular as a defensive specialist since returning from an injury that cost her the 2018 season, and fellow senior Emma Thompson also became a key part of the team's back line in 2019 after transferring in to Scripps as a sophomore. Senior Melanie Williams showed lots of potential while waiting her turn behind All-American Phoebe Madsen on the right side, and junior setter Spencer Hagenbuch, and junior outside hitters Izzy Sakoda, Summer Ellis and Sonia Bliss all earned playing time as rookies which will help them as then adjust to expanded roles this fall.
After waiting for two years to get the chance to play again, Fall said that she and her teammates are eagerly anticipating the chance to open up the 2021 campaign.
"Words don't do it justice," she said. "We're so excited, so grateful to be back in the gym, I think everyone is just riding the wave. It's such a good vibe this year. I can't wait to see what we do."
After co-hosting the Pacific Coast Classic, the Athenas will get the chance to test themselves against some of the top teams in the nation at the East-West Challenge on Sept. 10-11, which will be held at Cal Lutheran this year. CMS will face No. 1 Trinity (Texas) and No. 3 Emory at the tournament, as well as WashU, which it defeated in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.