On Saturday, April 18, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s water polo dethroned Pomona-Pitzer’s 20-year reign as SCIAC Champions. CMS triumphantly cemented its historic season after beating P-P for the first time in 20 years this January, and holding strong for a 14-10 win in the SCIAC Championship game.
In the first quarter, P-P held the lead until attacker Tatum Dwyer CM ’28 tied up the score with 16 seconds left. Fresh off the break, captain Grace Clark CM ’26 broke the tie, putting CMS ahead at 4-3.
“It was a huge deal to have Grace Clark back,” Sydney Kroonen SC ’28 said. “She is one of our captains. She was out in the last game.”
Quickly after Clark’s goal, however, Mia Amberger PO ’26 tied up the score again at four apiece. This tie remained until the last minute of the second quarter, when Kroonen and then Caitlin Muñoz SC ’26 scored back-to-back goals to give CMS a lead they kept through the rest of the game.
“This game means so much to our team; we’ve been the runner-up for the last four years in a row,” Kroonen said. “We haven’t won a SCIAC championship since 2006; we beat them for the first time in 20 years in our first match-up of the season, and we struggled a little bit in the next two. I’m glad we could finish it again, especially for our seniors, because they’ve lost this game for the entirety of their career.”
As the third quarter started, attacker Valerie Wraith CM ’27 came in hot with two consecutive goals less than a minute apart. Wraith was named the game’s MVP and contributed four goals to CMS.
“I feel good, but I also feel like it was very much a team effort,” Wraith said. “I wouldn’t say that I did anything special that other people didn’t do.”
Brienz Lang PO ’26 responded to Wraith’s goals with her first of two goals in the third quarter. Ayva Magna PO ’26, in the last second of the third quarter, scored a goal off a rebound, bringing the score close at 9-7 CMS.
Coming into the fourth quarter, P-P was still fighting hard, and Lang set the quarter off strong by winning the sprint to the ball. P-P also drew a 5-meter penalty shot for themselves but missed the opportunity. To combat the Hens’ momentum, Jordan LaCour CM ’28 and Isabel Del Villar CM ’26 secured two more goals for CMS at 11-7, building what seemed to be a sizable enough lead to secure the victory. From the bench, CMS’s players chanted “F-U-N” toward the pool to keep their teammates hyped.
“Today, we hit a stride where we want to hype ourselves up,” Kroonen said. “The thing we kept chanting during the game was “F-U-N,” … the team that wins has the most fun. I think that really helped carry us to the win today.”
CMS’s four-point lead with less than four minutes left in the game still proved to be at risk for P-P’s offensive spark, as Lang and the Hens put up a fight until the end, snagging two goals to bring the score to 11-9.
However, LaCour and Wraith responded with two more, re-establishing their four-point lead. Katie Hugar PZ ’29 cut the score to 13-10, but in the last 13 seconds, Grace Rich SC ’29 finished with a final goal, settling the score at 14-10 CMS.
“My favorite moment was when freshman Grace Rich scored our last goal,” Clark said. “She works really hard, and she’s improved so much even in her first year. I’m really proud of her. “
Postgame, from the pool deck, spectators could hear “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates blasted from the locker room while CMS players sang along to a variety of celebratory music.
“I feel like [this game] is a culmination of years of our team working hard together and supporting each other,” Clark said.
Despite already meeting thrice with CMS leading the series, P-P and CMS will go head-to-head again one more time on Sunday, April 26, at the USA Water Polo Division III Championship, if P-P wins their game on the day before against Macalester College.
“I’m excited to see us have more fun, keep a light touch, and just enjoy playing water polo with each other,” Clark said. “For a lot of our seniors and me, it’s our last time playing next weekend. [I hope to] just make the most of it.”
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