CMS Women's Water Polo Comes Up Just Short in Battle of SCIAC Unbeatens

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team used a 3-0 run to get down to a single goal in the fourth quarter at 10-9, but Pomona-Pitzer answered back with three straight goals of its own to capture a 13-10 win on Wednesday evening at Haldeman Pool.

Both teams came into the contest at 7-0 in league play, and the Sagehens now move to 8-0 and have the inside track at the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament. The Athenas are now one game back at 7-1, but would need Pomona-Pitzer to lose twice in its final four contests, due to the Sagehens having the tiebreaker. 

Isabel Del Villar keyed the fourth quarter with two goals 40 seconds apart. After Grace Clark made it 10-7 with 4:15 left, Del Villar scored her goals at the 3:25 and 2:45 marks to suddenly make it 10-9. 

The Athenas had a chance to tie, but Pomona-Pitzer came up with a stop and Lulu Gaither scored with 1:51 left to trigger a 3-0 Pomona-Pitzer run, Christina Kulick capped off the game with a goal before the buzzer to make the final 13-10. 

Fiona Murphy capped off the first quarter with a goal to put CMS up 3-2, and Cooper McKenna opened the second with a goal to give the Athenas a two-goal lead. The Sagehens, though, closed out the half with three straight goals to take a 5-4 lead at the break, and added two more in the second half to make it a 7-4 lead. 

Del Villar stopped the run with the first of her three goals, but Pomona-Pitzer was able to stretch it to a 10-6 lead with 5:52 left, before CMS made a run that came up short. 

Clark joined Del Villar in recording three-goal games, while Abigail Wiesenthal led all scorers with five goals for Pomona-Pitzer. 

CMS will be back in action at home on Saturday when it takes on Whittier for an 11 a.m. contest.