ORANGE, Calif. - Valerie Wraith had five goals and Jordan LaCour added four, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team broke open a close game early with a 7-0 run spanning both halves and took a 15-6 win over Chapman on Wednesday evening. 

The win improves the Athenas to 13-10 overall and 9-1 in the SCIAC, keeping them a game behind Pomona-Pitzer, which it faces next week with potentially a chance to pull even in the race for the regular season title. Chapman slips to 10-10 overall and 6-4 in the SCIAC with the loss. 

CMS started out with a quick 3-0 lead, but Chapman rallied back to tie it 3-3 at the end of the first. Wraith put the Athenas ahead to stay with a power play goal at the 7:07 mark of the second quarter, and LaCour followed with a goal just over two minutes later to make it 5-3. 

The Panthers closed the gap to 5-4, but Wraith capped off the first half with a goal with 36 seconds left, and LaCour started the second half with her third goal just 24 seconds in to make it 7-4. Wraith finished off her hat trick with 6:02 left in the third, and LaCour tallied her fourth less than a minute later. Grace Clark made it a 5-0 run with a goal with 2:26 left in the third to stretch the margin to 10-4. 

Wraith then started the fourth quarter with back-to-back goals in the first two minutes to push the lead to 12-4 and effectively seal the win. Chapman finally broke the 7-0 run with 5:16 to play, but Caitlin Muñoz answered right back with a penalty shot. Isabel Del Villar and Athena Mor added fourth-quarter tallies for CMS to make the final 15-6. 

Del Villar had two goals and four assists for CMS, and Muñoz had three assists and three steals, as the Athenas finished with 13 steals as a team. Mason Spencer had five second half saves for CMS, while Natalie Stearns had two in the first half. 

The Athenas will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to La Verne, before returning home for its regular season finale against Pomona-Pitzer next Wednesday.