CMS Women's Water Polo Rolls Past Ottawa 14-6 to Salvage Split at Redlands Invitational

REDLANDS, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team used a balanced offense with nobody scoring more than two goals to capture a 14-6 win over Ottawa in its second match of the day on Saturday at the Redlands Invitational.

The Athenas opened the day with a 10-1 defeat to UC San Diego as they move to 2-4 on the season, with all four losses coming to programs that are either in Division I (Marist, Brown, Bucknell) or in transition to Division I (UC San Diego). 

Senior Aracelia Aldrete, sophomore Addi Duvall, sophomore Maddy Menard and first-year Jessi Beyer each had two goals in the Ottawa win. Six other players had one goal apiece, including senior Celeste Cerna, sophomore Emily McElroy, junior Chandlyr Denaro, junior Amelia Ayala, junior Anna Fry, and first-year Christina Kulick.

CMS held a 5-2 lead at the half after Denaro scored with just 15 seconds left, and then broke it open with six straight goals in the third quarter. Aldrete started the onslaught with a goal 18 seconds into the second half, and Fry followed less than a minute later to make the score 7-2. Kulick stretched the lead to 8-2 at the 5:58 mark of the third, and Duvall made it a 4-0 run in less than four minutes with a goal with 4:32 left in the third. 

Cerna's goal pushed the margin to 10-2, and McElroy capped off the 7-0 run spanning both halves with 3:21 left in the third to make it an 11-2 contest. 

In the opening match of the day, UC San Diego scored seven goals in the first quarter before the Athenas settled in and played the Tritons more even the rest of the way. Menard scored the lone goal in the second quarter as CMS kept it to 7-1 at the half, but UC San Diego had all three second half goals to take the win. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 26, when it plays its home opener against SCIAC rival Occidental, beginning at 7 p.m.