California Lutheran University’s women’s water polo team lost in a tough matchup against the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas by a final score of 8-14.
The Athenas started out strong, scoring 6 goals in the first quarter, whereas, the Regals only managed to score twice in the first seven minutes. The Athenas also gained an advantage early in the first quarter by scoring on multiple counterattacks due to some bad passes by the Regals.
“We had offensives or we weren’t paying attention, and they drove on us and so then they were getting up on a counter and then another thing that we talked about was their big overpasses and they had a few of those. So when they had it overpass, they passed into set and then they shot,” sophomore driver Reyna Clark said.
The second quarter was quick with neither team scoring for almost six whole minutes. The Athenas managed to find the back of the net with just under two minutes remaining in the first half, along with a buzzer-beater goal to finish off the first half.
“It’s tiring, it’s really tiring…really huffing and puffing and it’s like a swim meet, we try not to do that very often,” graduate student driver Bethany Metcalfe said.
In the third quarter, the Regals started to pick up its game with a 4-point run, making the score 11-6 to finish off the third quarter.
“I think we just started playing our water polo and getting a little bit more into the counters and the intensity stepped up. We realized we could really play with them,” Metcalfe said.
In the final quarter, the Regals tried to fill the gap but were unsuccessful, scoring 2 points in the fourth quarter while CMS scored 3, ending the game with a final score of 8-14.
This was the second game in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play for the Regals. Their first game was against La Verne on March 9, which ended in a tough 12-13 loss.
Head Women’s Water Polo Coach Tim Settem said that even though the Regals are currently 0-2 in the SCIAC, the team still has the chance to prove it can compete with the top teams in the SCIAC with games against teams like Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental.
“Every game we go into we’ve gotta think it’s like a SCIAC championship game and so today we did a lot of good things, we made some mistakes… it’s always learning from those games, in those contests,” Settem said.
After this game, the Regals are ranked 7th in the SCIAC, but there is still much of the season left.
The Regals have an overall record of 4-14 after this game, but many of their games so far have been against Division 1 opponents. This was the Regals’ only game against the CMS Athenas during the 2024 season. However, the Regals and the Athenas could still potentially meet up in the post-season, as the teams have played against each other in the post-season for two years in a row now.
“We’ve played them in the playoffs for the past two years I believe, and gotten knocked out each year so you know we love to play CMS, it’s a good battle every time. So we’re excited to hopefully see them in the playoffs,” Metcalfe said.
The Regals still have 10 more games in the SCIAC before playoffs begin, and the team will have plenty of opportunities to learn how other teams match up and how they like to play.
The Regals defeated the California Institute of Technology Beavers on Saturday, March 16 at Caltech. The Regals will face the Chapman Panthers on March 20 at 4 p.m. at home.
