The Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s soccer team kicked off the Sixth Street rivalry week on Sept. 23 with a 1-0 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). In a game where the teams entered tied in the SCIAC standings, everyone in the benches and stands at Pomona-Pitzer Soccer Field showed up knowing it was going to be a tough fight.
For the Sagehens, winning this Sixth Street battle was rooted in playing within themselves and trusting their teammates to keep bringing the energy.
“We’ve been talking about the two things that we can control,” Sagehen midfielder Lucia Page Sander PZ ’29 said. “It is our effort and our attitude, and so we want to continue with that and just have good qualities on and off the field to have a good team environment and team culture.”
Although neither team scored in the first half, both maintained steady offensive pressure and strong defense, with P-P recording five shots to CMS’ four. P-P forward Imogen Jenkyn PO ’28 and Page Sander each tested CMS goalie Andra Marinescu HM ’27 to no avail. Sagehen goalkeeper Patricia DePalma PO ’27 made two early saves, keeping her team locked in a nil-nil battle.
CMS women’s soccer head coach David Nolan stressed consistency and attention to detail with his team. Their discipline shined through for most of the night as they limited the P-P attack to just seven shots on goal.
“We try to be very consistent,” Nolan said. “We do exactly what we do for every game, whether it’s a Sixth Street rivalry or it’s a lower-level team in our conference … But obviously, [P-P is] a good team, so you still have to take into account the analysis of how they play.”
In the 57th minute, to the sound of applause from the crowd, forward Brooke Bailey PO ’27 scored the sole goal of the game, assisted by midfielder Anya Offenbacher-Jones PO ’28. Bailey, who has scored in her last three games, was this past week’s SCIAC Offensive Player of the Week.
Following a timeout with 19 minutes left in the game, the P-P team was feeling the energy. Players on the bench stood, following their teammates on the side of the field and chanting their signature “chirp chirp” battle cry. P-P coach Miranda Armstrong attributes the team’s success to their constant rotation of the players on the bench.
“We have a lot of really good players, and so we are able to rotate players more and stay fresh and keep pressure on the opponent,” Armstrong said. “It’s really important that we stay connected and supportive of each other.”
Armstrong noted that P-P women’s soccer has worked hard to not only develop their technical skills but their team chemistry.
“We try to do a lot of team-building activities and silly things where we can get to know each other,” she said. “It’s something we can always do more of, because team culture and team chemistry is really what’s going to propel you in these big games like it did today.”
On the opposite sideline, the Athenas remained focused on their broader goal for the season –– to win a SCIAC championship –– despite this week’s loss.
“We have a game in two days, and that’s the luxury of playing in a conference like this; you can’t really dwell on the results too long,” Nolan said. “We allow the players to be pissed off and frustrated, but we don’t want to dwell too much on the loss. We can’t.”
The Sagehens are looking to carry the success they had on Wednesday forward into the rest of the schedule, as they aim for their eighth consecutive SCIAC championship.
“[It’s] always so awesome to play teams that are on campus, and we’re just really proud of our team as a whole,” midfielder Ellie Peterson PO ’29 said. “We really worked hard this game and played for each other, played with confidence, played with joy, and we’re just really excited for the rest of the season.”
The teams’ nailbiting matchup marks the first game of this week’s Sixth Street series, sure to bring even more intensity to the upcoming football and volleyball rivalry games on Saturday and Tuesday nights, respectively.
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