The Athenas suited up for battle and took their artillery underwater in a dominant display of cross-pool chemistry, demolishing the La Verne Leopards 17-5 at Axelrood Pool on Wednesday, April 3. This win sustains a season of success for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s water polo team, currently ranking No. 2 in the SCIAC, placing them narrowly behind the undefeated Sagehens.
The Athenas won the ball to start the first quarter and quickly made it past La Verne, allowing Cooper McKenna CM ’24 to score a stunner in the opening 20 seconds. This started a scoring frenzy for the Athenas and they had five more goals in the first. Thanks to two points from McKenna, two from Caitlin Muñoz SC ’26 and one from Valerie Wraith CM ’27, the Athenas took an early 6-0 lead.
Despite this, CMS showed no mercy moving into the second quarter, scoring five more goals and bringing the scoreboard to 11-0 going into the half.
Angelina Tsai HM ’26 described the intensity that her team tries to bring to every game, no matter the level of competition.
“[Our coach has] been emphasizing coming in with a sharp intense focus to take care of everything quickly and therefore ensure the win,” Tsai said.
A big part of the Athenas’ offensive success in the first half came from quick transition play and counter attacks. McKenna had two goals from counters that she took herself, utilizing her speed in the water to rush past La Verne defenders to the net. Saves from Mason Spencer CM ’26 and a tight, aggressive CMS defense often led to balls going the other way on long passes that split the Leopards and created chances for the Athenas to finish off. Grace Clark CM ’26 emphasized the importance of Spencer’s defense in the first half.
“She communicated and told us where to be and also made some amazing blocks for some outside shots,” Clark said. “She got a steal coming out of the cage when the ball was trying to be passed into the center, off the pass. And that was awesome awareness knowing where to come out, so she’s really protecting us.”
Their attack was strong, but it was the Athenas’ defense that allowed them to thrive. Not allowing goals in the first half and only five in the second, according to head coach Greg Lonzo, transition play has been a bigger focus for the team. He said the team’s positive atmosphere has allowed for more opportunities to score off of defensive plays.
“I think our chemistry and cohesiveness has really gotten so much better these last, probably three weeks,” Lonzo said. “We’ve been spending a lot of time just kind of working on [not just] individual skills, but also collective skills. Working together on drive defense and talking through certain situations with each other has been huge.”
Clark echoed this sentiment, describing how improvements in team chemistry have led to a newfound confidence in both the team collectively and in the individual players.
“For the team as a whole we’ve had a mindset shift, a lot more confidence and working together, trusting each other more and I think that has come from more communication in the pool,” Clark said. “Not being scared to yell when you need help or to say good job after positive things happen has allowed for greater confidence overall.”
While the Athenas may have made it look easy, the Leopards still put up a fight throughout the game, clawing their way to a goal with 15 seconds left in the third and four goals in the last quarter.
CMS continued to battle through the physical matchup. In the opening minutes of the fourth, Muñoz had an opportunity on goal when she was stopped by a La Verne defender. After an initial no-call, the refs blew their whistle for an ejection and Muñoz scored, turning to the ref after her goal to showcase her frustration. Many other CMS players were similarly frustrated with the refs, according to Tsai, who argued that some of the ejections were unjustified while some fouls on the other end were missed.
“I do know that some of our team members were pretty upset with that,” Tsai said. “But we still pulled it out in the end, always do.”
After this double-digit win, the Athenas are looking ahead to April 20, their last game of the regular season, which will be a rematch against No. 1 SCIAC ranked Pomona-Pitzer (P-P). Their first faceoff of the year, which took place on March 6, was a close competition that ended in a 12-9 Sagehen victory in overtime.
“That’s a game where we’ve lost twice now consecutively in overtime, so it’s a turning point for us,” Muñoz said, referencing their March 6 loss to the Hens. “We want to win that game. But up until then, every opponent we play, we expect the same results as we just got in this game. We want to dominate on defense, control the game, keep them under five goals.”
CMS is hopeful that the regular season won’t be the last time they face P-P, according to Lonzo, who said the playoffs will likely see another contest between the two rivals.
“We’re gonna need to step up in those moments,” Lonzo said. “The first game, we had glimpses of that but now we need to really kind of nail it down. And when we get into the last five minutes of a game, know who’s going to take over and who’s going to control the game. At the end of the day, I need every player in the pool to take over and score some goals.”
Looking forward, CMS will play Caltech next on Wednesday, April 10 at Caltech.
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