The Athenas clipped the Eagle’s wings in a nail-biting home opener last Saturday in a tight 8-7 win. On Feb. 10, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s water polo team scrambled to victory against Concordia in their first home game of the season in Axelrood Pool. The game’s defining feature was defense and the Athenas worked until the end, demonstrating that every point counts.
CMS is looking for redemption this season following their overtime loss to Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) in the NCAA Division III championship last year and are already putting in the work this preseason.
CMS recently returned from competing across the country in the Bruno Classic at Brown and Harvard Universities, taking home a win of 15-13 against Saint Francis University, but falling to Brown and two other teams in high-scoring games. Grace Clark CM ’26 described the team’s goals heading into their first home game as a revised strategy that they adopted after the invitational on the East Coast.
“I think coming off of [the invite] we’re just really focusing on coming together as a team,” Clark said. “I feel like we’re getting in shape as individuals but we just need to work on passing and making good plays for each other. A lot of our games have been super high-scoring, but now we’re going for defense and [working on] not allowing a lot of points.”
Clark’s vision of team cohesion came to fruition in Saturday’s game in a dynamic play between the freshman-senior duo of Valerie Wraith CM ’27 and Mia Adsen SC ’24. Wraith scored both the first goal of the day for the Athenas and went on to score the game-winning point in the fourth quarter.
“That was really big for us and for her,” Clark said. “She’s doing super well and they both really just connected.”
The Athenas were up 3-2 after goals from Wraith, Adsen and Cooper McKenna CM ’24 in the first half, but quickly lost their lead when Concordia scored first at the start of the second half. After McKenna put away back-to-back goals in the third quarter, however, the Athenas began to pull ahead once again.
Angelina Tsai HM ’26 described how McKenna, who was in a different position than normal, was able to adapt quickly. She noted that McKenna’s ability ultimately helped them win the game.
“Even though Cooper usually doesn’t play center, she got down in there on some drives today and made three center shots,” Tsai said.
After a goal from Clark with 20 seconds left in the third quarter, the Athenas’ three goal streak ended when Concordia brought the score up to 4-6 with CMS still in the lead.
To start the fourth quarter Adsen extended the Athenas’ lead by one goal, bumping the score up to 7-4. Tsai highlighted Adsen’s reliability in crucial moments like these.
“Mia is laser-accurate,” Tsai said. “So once she gets the ball, you know it’s going in the cage.”
Following Adsen’s point, two back-to-back goals from the Eagles put the pressure back on for CMS, now only leading by one point. However, one final goal from Wraith provided the insurance the Athenas needed as the Eagles could only add one more to their total, sealing the CMS Saturday night win.
For CMS, this win was just a small step in a much longer journey to redemption against P-P. While still in pre-season, the Athenas hope to continue sharpening their skills before upcoming SCIAC competitions begin. Clark described the struggles of balancing intensity and fun this season after suffering a loss to P-P at Nationals.
“This season [we’re] working on having a lot of fun and enjoying each other but also coming in with that intensity of wanting to win and do really well,” Clark said.
However, goals go beyond hardware this season for some. As a senior, Adsen said she strives to foster a supportive environment. She added that she hopes to follow in the footsteps of those who helped lead her when she was an underclassman.
“There’s only four of us [seniors], so we’re all very involved in trying to make the team dynamic the best that it can be,” Adsen said. “The alumni really shaped our team and there’s still a culture that they left behind of being very supportive, not competitive in a negative way, but competitive like we’re all trying to get better.”
The Athenas will play again on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Redlands before hosting their annual Claremont Convergence Tournament against top-ranked DI schools including USC and Santa Clara University during the weekend of March 1.
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