The Sagehens fluttered back home across Sixth Street with pomp and circumstance, taking their senior night to show the Athenas — once again — that shields and spears are no match for beaks and talons. On Saturday, April 20, Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s water polo sent the Athenas home with ripped togas, beating Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) 12-5 to end the regular season with a perfect 12-0 conference record, cementing their No. 1 spot in the SCIAC.
Putting on a dominant showing for senior night, this victory marked another notch on the belt for the Hens, making it 12 years and 20 bouts since CMS last beat P-P. This includes victories over the Athenas in both last year’s SCIAC tournament and the 2023 NCAA Division III national championship final with a nail biting 14-13 overtime win.
The game began much more evenly matched than it ended with a back and forth affair keeping the crowd at the edge of their seats throughout the first half. Sagehen goals from Kaylee Stigar PO ’25, Abigail Wiesenthal PO ’24 and Lulu Gaither PZ ’25 were quickly matched by Athena goals from Dara Schoolcraft CM ’25 and Isabel Del Villar CM ’26, leaving P-P with a thin 3-2 lead to end the first quarter.
Stigar said that despite the lead, the Sagehens were not happy with their level of play. However, she noted that they were prepared for this early setback and decided to change their mindset going into the rest of the game.
“One thing we say during or in-between quarters when we are not doing our best is play it quarter by quarter, second by second, play by play,” Stigar said.
Momentum in the second quarter mirrored that of the first, with Cooper McKenna CM ’24 putting away an equalizer with 6:07 left in the half. But the scoreboard wasn’t matched for long and Wiesenthal quickly answered with a goal, putting the Sagehens back up with the clock reading 4:04. The Hens held this one point lead into the third period.
Wiesenthal said she was proud of her team’s unity, emphasizing how their collective effort was essential to maintaining the edge in the water.
“I think that we just had to show up and be a team together,” Wiesenthal said. “I think it is really important to play as a united front. When everyone is kind of playing individually it’s hard to work as a collective and at the end of the day, water polo is a team sport. We just showed up with a bunch of energy and a drive to win.”
After the half, P-P showed up with energy necessary to break out of the stalemate they had been locked in. Stigar scored twice before Brienz Lang PO ’26 stretched the Hens’ lead to 7-3 with 2:39 left in the third period. However, the Athenas responded only 20 seconds later, with a goal from Valerie Wraith CM ’27. Despite cutting into the lead, CMS was unable to put together a run and the score remained 7-4 to end the quarter.
Madison Lewis PO ’24 credited the teams’ success to an entire season of hard work, noting that their high-level play in transition is something they have been working on for months.
“We’ve always been locked in working as a team on offense and defense,” Madison Lewis said. “It’s just kind of getting the wheels turning and by the end of the season it’s [been] moving a lot smoother.”
The Sagehens got out of the gate fast in the 4th quarter with a goal from Gaither. This was followed by an Athena power play goal from Del Villar; however, Gaither scored again shortly after to extend the hen’s lead to 9-5 and CMS was unable to find the back of the net for the rest of the game. With 6:07 left in the game, Madison Lewis scored P-P’s tenth goal and the game was rounded out by two more Sagehen goals, one from Gabby Lewis PO ’26 and a penalty shot from Gaither.
After this 12-5 win marked her final regular season game as a Sagehen, Wiesenthal, a senior, was confident in the program’s future going forward into next season.
“I’m just trying to soak it all in, I love water polo, so it means so much to me,” Wiesenthal said. “Once I graduate it’s harder to find places to play, [but] I’m so excited for that because next year’s team will have so many amazing sophomores, juniors and freshman so I know they will go and do amazing things.”
As a member of next year’s team Stigar had a slightly different perspective of the future.
“I’m really looking forward to it, [but] sadly a lot of big players are graduating,” Stigar said. “Our team is just so happy and positive, we are all such good friends [and] I’m just excited to train in the summer and come back in the fall and get back in shape with each other.”
Looking forward, the Hens are hopeful for their 12th SCIAC championship and the possibility of a third consecutive NCAA title. Before that, on April 26, P-P will face Cal Lutheran and CMS will face Chapman in the SCIAC semifinals, setting up a possible Sixth Street SCIAC finals rematch where CMS will attempt to break the twelve year curse and P-P will look to win their third consecutive conference title.
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