CMS Women's Water Polo Pulls Away from La Verne for 18-11 Win

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team scored seven times in the third quarter to build a big lead and went on to capture an 18-11 win over La Verne on Wednesday night at Axelrood Pool.

With the win, CMS improves to 15-9 overall and 9-1 in SCIAC play, while La Verne drops to 5-4 in conference with the loss. 

Grace Clark had five goals and two assists to lead the Athenas with seven points, while Isabel Del Villar had four goals and one assist. Christina Kulick and Caitlin Muñoz each had hat tricks with three goals apiece, while Cooper McKenna led CMS with five assists.

The Athenas took a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter on a goal from Elise Power with four seconds left. CMS then used its defense in the second quarter to outscore La Verne 3-0 and take a 7-3 lead into halftime, then used its offense to pull ahead 14-8 heading into the fourth. 

Clark scored her third on the first possession of the second quarter to make it a 5-3 CMS lead, and Dara Schoolcraft and Del Villar closed out the half with goals to make it 7-3. Muñoz started the second half with a goal to make it a 5-0 CMS run, and the two teams essentially traded goals the rest of the third, with Kulick scoring all three of hers during the frame, the last of which made it 14-7 with 2:24 left. 

La Verne made a mini-run to close it to 14-10, but Clark answered to make it 15-10. The Leopards had one final goal to close it to 15-11, but Del Villar scored three straight times to seal it. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Occidental, before closing out the regular season at Cal Lutheran next Wednesday. A win in either game would secure the No. 2 seed and the right to host a SCIAC Semifinal.