Athenas win fifth place game in SCIAC Championships

Roxy Kiessling (Photo by Connor Ortman)

REDLANDS, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team ended its season on a two game win streak in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (SCIAC) Championships on Sunday afternoon. The Athenas beat Cal Lutheran 9-7 to take home fifth place in the Championships.

CMS jumped out to an early two-goal lead with scores by sophomores Claire Baxter (CMC) and Christine Hu (CMC) but then CLU's Amanda Jones notched two of her own to tie up the game 2-2 with three minutes left in the first quarter. As time wound down, freshman Tess van Hulsen (CMC) and sophomore Roxy Kiessling (CMC) boosted the Athenas to lead 4-2 after the first eight minutes.

Kiessling went on to score four goals in the game including the team's only two in the third quarter.

CMS and CLU traded goals in the second period with Hu earning her second of the game. With a pair of Kiessling's goals in the third, CMS went into the fourth quarter leading by three goals.

Despite allowing three in the final period, van Hulsen and Kiessling each found the back of the net for CMS to secure the 9-7 win.

With the victory today, the Athenas avenged the 14-7 loss to the Regals at the end of March.
Head coach Greg Lonzo felt that "the defense was awesome and our ball movement was as good as it's been all year." Sophomore goalie Mariah Mastrodimos (SCR) made eight saves on the day, constantly defying the Regals' attacks.

On the weekend, Kiessling led from all over the pool and scored 13 goals in the three games, significantly higher than her regular season average of 2.13 goals per game.
The Athenas finish at 9-18 overall and 6-5 in SCIAC play for the season.
Box Score

By Emily Nordhoff
Sports Information Director
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps