CLAREMONT, Calif. - SCIAC Athlete of the Year
Amelia Ulmer recorded a hat trick, but the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's lacrosse team ended up on the short end of an 18-10 score to Pomona-Pitzer in the championship game of the SCIAC Tournament on Saturday evening.
Pomona-Pitzer improves to 16-1 and earns the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships. CMS falls to 12-5 on the year and will await a possible at-large bid when selections are announced on Monday.
The Sagehens jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed, but had to withstand a few CMS rallies to earn the title.
Ella Seidel and
Eleanor Shen scored two straight goals to get the Athenas back within 3-2 with 6:23 left in the first quarter. The score stayed frozen there, as CMS had a few chances to tie, before Pomona-Pitzer scored with 19 seconds left to take a 4-2 lead into the second quarter.
Pomona-Pitzer extended the lead to 8-2 and seemed poised to pull away, but Ulmer scored with 5:48 left in the half and
Stella Hansot added a free position goal to close the gap to 8-4. The Sagehens tallied one with 11 seconds left to restore a five-goal lead into the break, and then opened the second half with three more to pull ahead 12-4.
CMS had one last spurt in it, as
Kaia Scott,
Ava Goldson and
Maya Mihara all scored in a span of 2:28 to make it a 12-7 game with 4:53 still left in the third. Pomona-Pitzer, though, scored twice with an extra attacker after a yellow card to get it to 14-7, and were able to maintain their lead in the fourth for the championship win.
Cate Lewison led CMS with six ground balls, while
Eleanor Shen adn
Ella Seidel each had four.
Sanya Arora had six saves in goal in relief.
CMS stands in good shape to receive a bid, with only five losses on the season, all of which came to ranked teams (three to Pomona-Pitzer, one to Amherst and one to Chicago), while earning a win over nationally ranked Colorado College. The Athenas had a ranking of 22 in the NCAA's rating percentage index (NPI) heading into the weekend, while Pomona-Pitzer was ranked No. 6.
