CLAREMONT, Calif. - Tournament MVP Nick Kennedy had five goals, two in a game-closing 5-0 run, and Jake Taylor had 12 saves in goal, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team broke open a game that was tied 4-4 after three quarters to earn a 9-4 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the USA Water Polo Division III Men's Collegiate National Championship match on Sunday in front of an overflow crowd at Axelrood Pool. 

With the win, CMS concludes the season with a 23-5 record, with no regulation losses against Division III competition. The Stags did fall 10-9 in overtime to Pomona-Pitzer in the regular season, but avenged that twice in the postseason, winning the SCIAC title 13-11 at Pomona-Pitzer and earning the right to host the national championship. 

The Stags also won their second national title in the last three seasons, after also winning the 2023 crown 7-6 over Redlands in a game hosted at Augustana. Augustana won the third place game on Sunday 14-13 over MIT. 

CMS jumped out a 2-0 lead on two goals from Kennedy in the first 2:09 of the game, and the score stayed frozen at 2-0 for over 12 minutes before Pomona-Pitzer finally got on the board with 3:10 left in the half on a goal from Max Distaso. Darragh Flanders tied it for the Sagehens with 40 seconds left, but Stryker Scales answered back with 21 seconds left to give CMS a 3-2 lead heading into the break.

Pomona-Pitzer tied the score at 3-3 with 3:59 left in the third, and then again at 4-4 to end the third after Kennedy temporarily gave the Stags the lead back. 

The final period was all CMS, though, as Gavin Netherton gave the Stags the lead for good with a shot from a sharp angle to the left of the cage with 6:17 left.  Donovan Davidson stretched the lead to 6-4 with a power play goal with 4:02 left to make it 6-4 in favor of CMS. 

Davidson has been no stranger to fourth quarter goals in national championships, as he had both the tying and the winning goals on successive possessions in the final two minutes of the 7-6 win over Redlands in 2023. 

Taylor proceeded to shut the door on any Pomona-Pitzer comeback hopes with five fourth-quarter saves. Kennedy scored two goals at the 2:27 mark and the 1:42 mark, both from long distance as the Sagehens tried to press forward. Thomas Walker capped off the win with a late goal to make the final score 9-4. 

Kennedy finished the USA Water Polo Division III Championship with nine goals, and ended his junior season with 99, on his way to adding Tournament MVP honors to his SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year Award.

The national title was the second in the program's history and the 12th for the CMS athletic department as a whole, nine of which have come in the last ten years since 2015. It was also the second title that CMS has won at its home facility, along with the 2018 women's tennis championship won at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. 

The Stags will try to make it three titles in four seasons next year, but will have to replace a strong senior class, led by Taylor, Walker, Davidson, All-American center Luke (Bear) Weigle, and defensive captain Ivey Gehring.