CMS Volleyball Opens Friday, Ranked No. 3 in Preseason Poll

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team, which will host the NCAA Division III Championships this year at Roberts Pavilion, begins its quest to win a national title on its home floor when it plays three home matches at the Pacific Coast Classic this weekend.

CMS comes into the new season ranked No. 3 in the nation after a 30-1 season a year ago, which saw the Athenas earn the No. 1 ranking for 10 straight weeks before suffering its only loss in five sets (16-14 in the fifth) to Trinity (Texas) in the NCAA Regional Finals. Trinity went on to finish the tournament as the runner-up to Juniata, and Juniata enters the new season ranked No. 1 in the nation, with Trinity at No. 2. 

The Athenas will get the chance to play both teams in the early part of the schedule, meeting Trinity at the East-West Battle at Roberts Pavilion on Sept. 9 and then facing Juniata at the Cal Lutheran Invitational on Sept. 16. The challenging early-season slate also will feature No. 9 Johns Hopkins, No. 14 WashU and No. 25 Wisconsin Eau Claire. 

CMS won the national title in 2017, and will actually face the teams that won the last three national championships in the opening three weeks of the season - Johns Hopkins (2019), Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2021) and Juniata (2022), with the 2020 championship canceled due to the pandemic. 

The Athenas are optimistic about their chances of a deep tournament run, with almost their entire lineup returning from a team that lost only seven sets in 31 matches, including five who were on the AVCA All-America teams. Leading the way is the reigning National Player of the Year, Jenna Holmes, who had a team-high 348 kills last season while hitting .299, and also adding 304 digs defensively. 

Brenna Bell earned first-team All-America honors last season as a right-side hitter, becoming the first player in program history to record over a .400 hitting percentage for a single season (.404). Setter Georgia McGovern earned second-team All-America honors after totaling 681 assists (6.88 per set) and was called up to compete with the England National Team during the offseason. Earning honorable mention All-America honors were libero Dede Carranza, the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year who had a team-high 461 digs and 49 service aces, and middle hitter Audrey Sawyer, who nearly joined Bell in the .400 club by hitting .395.

On the outside, Brooke McKee (143 kills) and Izzy Sakoda (132 kills) both were key cogs in the CMS attack last year, while Kelsey Polhemus (61 kills), Lauren Parker (35 kills) and Dani Beder (38 kills) were regulars in the middle rotation along with Sawyer. Isabel Yau-Weeks, Ashley Murashige and Jhila Ferdows are also returning as defensive specialists. 

Graduation losses affected a little bit of the CMS depth, with setter Spencer Hagenbuch and right-side Summer Ellis serving as three-rotation players in a 6-2 system, and Jackie Jones earning 15 starts on the outside. But Maxine Matheson-Lieber is back for her senior season looking to expand her role on the outside, and setters Izze Stolzoff and Shelby McIlroy are returning to try to earn a spot in the rotation. First-years Shae Delany (outside), Solvej Eversoll (middle), Anna Ryan (setter) and Samantha Riter (setter) will also try to earn their way onto the floor for a deep Athena team. 

CMS has its first match on Friday at the Pacific Coast Classic when it takes on Carthage at 3:15 p.m. at Roberts Pavilion, before facing Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. and Southwestern (Texas) on Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

The eight-team NCAA Division III National Championships will be held from Nov. 29-Dec. 2 at Roberts Pavilion, with the quarterfinals on Wednesday, Nov. 29, the semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 30 and the national championship match on Saturday, Dec. 2.