Andrew Cosentino (CMC JR) was named to the All-SCIAC first team for the second straight year. Photo Credit: Gary Stephenson.

Women’s Volleyball
A young team, graduating only one senior (Jamie Matusiak (CMC)) finished a rocky season at 14-15 overall and tied for 5th in SCIAC competition with a 6-8 conference record. Allie Macy (CMC JR) OH and Taylor Jones (CMC FR) S were named to the All-SCIAC second team.

Women’s Soccer
One of the most dominant seasons in Athena’s soccer included a nine-game winning streak, an undefeated SCIAC campaign, and a second straight SCIAC tournament title before falling in the round of 32 of the NCAA tournament. Laura Hagen (CMC SR) was selected as SCIAC Player of the Year, leading the league in assists, and 2nd in goals scored.  First Team All-SCIAC selections included goalie Camila Friedman-Gerlicz (CMC SR), defender Stefanie Chan (CMC JR) and midfielder Nicole Sady-Kennedy (CMC SR). Defender Courtney Funk (SCR SR), midfielder Kirsten McAfee (HMC JR), forward Giselle Galanto (CMC SR) and utility player Julia Nishioka (CMC SO) were named to the Second team.  We finished 16-3-2 overall and 10-0-2 in SCIAC play.

Men’s Soccer
After a fourth place finish in the regular season, the Stags knocked off top seed Pomona and second seed Redlands to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2000. They continued their magic run in the NCAAs, winning at Santa Cruz before falling in the round of 32 to Whitworth.  Goalie Ryan Fahey (CMC SR), defender Tomislav Zbozinek (CMC SR), midfielder Michael Nguyentat (CMC JR), and forward Harrison Doyle (CMC FR) were named to the All-SCIAC first team. Midfielder David Taylor (CMC FR) was a Second Team All-SCIAC selection.  We finished 12-8-2 overall and 8-5-1 against SCIAC foes.

Football
After a 2-0 start, including the seniors’ first victory over regional rival Puget Sound, the Stags went into a mid-season funk, losing four of their next five games. However, strong performances by the defense, QB Pat Rooney (CMC SO) and DJ Lillard (CMC SR) helped the team win their final two games, clinching a winning season and retaining the Peace Pipe. First team SCIAC selections were running back DJ Lillard, linebacker Dan Picciotto, (CMC SR), and defensive back Brock Olson (CMC SR). Offensive tackle Matt Pautler, (CMC JR) and defensive lineman Rory Baird, JR, (CMC JR) were named to the second team. The Stags finished 5-4 overall and an even 3-3 in SCIAC play.

Men’s Cross Country
The men finished a strong season in 15^th at NCAAs after winning the West Region and SCIAC titles. All-Region honors for the men included Kramer Straube (HMC JR) 4^th, Brian Kopczynski (CMC JR), Florian Scheulen (HMC SR), Brian Sutter (CMC FR), Georgi Dinolov (HMC JR) and Matt Kurtis (HMC SR). First Team All-SCIAC selections were Straube, Kopczynski Kris Brown (CMC JR), and Sutter. Second Team All-SCIAC selections for the Stags were Scheulen, Kurtis, Dinolov, and Dillon Ayers (HMC JR).

Women’s Cross Country
The women finished 22^nd at NCAAs, besting conference rivals Redlands and Occidental in their final two meets, after finishing behind these two in the SCIAC championships   Jennifer Tavé (SCR SO) finished 27^th to become the first Athena All-American runner since 2005, also earning First team All-SCIAC honors and All-Region honors. All-Region honors for the women also included, Julia Rigby (SCR SO), and Breanna Deutsch (SCR SO). Rigby and Ashley Scott (CMC JR) were named to the All-SCIAC second team.

Men’s Tennis
Robert Erani (CMC SO) won the West Regional tournament and finished in 3rd place at the ITA nationals to earn All-American honors for the first time in his  budding career.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the NCAA West Region Meet across the street at Pomona. The Stags took first place honors as the only team with three runners (Kramer Straube (HMC JR) 4^th, Brian Kopczynski (CMC JR) 6^th, Florian Scheulen (HMC SR) 9^th in the top 10. This was the first West Region victory since 2001 for the Stags, and qualifies the team for NCAAs. The women finished a promising 3rd, rebounding from a disappointing performance at SCIACs by finishing ahead of 1st place Occidental and 2nd place Pomona-Pitzer, and qualifying for NCAAs. Jennifer Tavé (SCR SO) 2^nd, Julia Rigby (SCR SO) 11^th anchored the Athenas as they have all season. The D3 NCAA championships are being hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, OH this Saturday, November 21. The men will look to improve on their 30th place finish from last year, and the women on their 20th place finish.

The men’s Water Polo team competed in the SCIAC tournament at home and had two big upsets before falling in the final. After a 10-8 victory over 4th seeded Cal Lutheran, the aquatic Stags drew the number one ranked team in division 3 in Whittier in the semi-finals. After falling behind 2-0 in the first quarter, the men rebounded to tie the score 3-all at the half. The back and forth game saw the Stags continue to jump ahead of the Poets, but it seemed as if Whittier had an answer for everything. However, after Whittier scored to tie the game at 5-5 in the fourth quarter, Greg Sanford (CMC JR) put the Stags up 6-5 on the ensuing possession. Whittier then brought the house on the Stags defense, not wanting to lose their undefeated season. The men held strong, shutting down the Poets, including a 6 on 5 advantage in the waning moments of the game, giving themselves a SCIAC final birth. Unfortunately the Cinderella run ended for the Stags in the finals, dropping a 4-2 tilt to Redlands in the SCIAC final.

Dan Picciotto and Brock Olson celebrate their win over Pomona-Pitzer. Photo credit: Gary Stephenson

In the Peace Pipe game, the Stags drew first blood on a 23 yd scramble by Patrick Rooney (CMC SO), but P-P responded, scoring twice to put the Sagehens up 14-7. At the end of the second half, the Stags drove 51 yards in two minutes, capped by a D.J. Lillard (CMC SR) Touchdown run, but the PAT was blocked, giving P-P a 14-13 advantage at halftime. After a pep talk by their coach, and and a pumped up 5c dance company performance, the Stags came back strong, with Mikey Hirokawa (CMC SR) catching a 39 yard TD pass after three consecutive P-P drives ended by interceptions, 2 by Brock Olson (CMC SR), and 1 by Dan Picciotto (CMC SR). After a two point conversion, the Stags went back up 21-14. P-P responded on their next posession to tie the game at 21, but Mikey Hirokawa returned a kickoff 73 yards to the P-P 3 yard line, and Nick Marineau (CMC SR) caught a Pat Rooney pass for the final score of the game. P-P threatened on their final drive, but could not get past the CMS defense. The Stags won the peace pipe for the third year in a row and finished with their first winning season since 2003 at (5-4, 3-3 SCIAC).

• CMS has the two top ranked male golfers in Division III in Tain Lee CM ‘12 and John Morris CM ‘10, according to Golfstat.com, and coach Bim Jollymour recently stated this was the most talented team he has had in his nine year coaching career.
• Robbie Erani CM ‘12, the top ranked tennis player in the West region, took third place honors over fall break at the Division 3 Nationals in Mobile, Alabama.  Watch for the tear-jerking personal interview on the Forum soon.

On to the full report…

The Men’s Cross Country team sits as the favorites in SCIAC competition as they smoked the competition at Pomona two weeks ago in the SCIAC dual meet. Arguably the strongest team since 2002, when the Stags won their last league title (their 7th in a row), the Stags had four of the top five finishers in Kramer Straube HM ‘11, Georgi Dinolov HM ‘11, Kris Brown CM ‘11, and Matt Cummins HM ‘11. The team heads to Chino this weekend to take on their SCIAC rivals again, for a chance at the SCIAC title, which they narrowly missed last year.

The Women’s Cross country team finished second to Occidental by a single point at the SCIAC dual meet at Pomona a week ago. Jennifer Tave SC ‘12 crushed the second place Pomona runner by a 28 second margin, and Julia Rigby SC ‘12 finished third. The Athena harriers will have a shot at the SCIAC title this weekend as well in Chino as they try and get their revenge on the Tigers.

Landon Patoc returns an interception 40 yds for a touchdown in the Stags game against Redlands last Saturday Photo Credit: Gary Stephenson

After a 21-14 loss at Cal Lutheran and a home loss to Redlands 53-27, having opportunities to put the game away in both, the football team sits at 3-3 on the season and 1-3 in SCIAC play. QB Scott Yingling CM ‘11 has led the offense with a 106.31 efficiency rating on the season, passing to his favorite three targets in Nick Marineau CM ‘10, Mikey Hirokawa CM ‘10 and Jacob Tobis CM ‘10, as well as FB D.J. Lillard CM ‘10, who has averaged 100 all purpose yards a game. Dan Picciotto CM ‘10 has led the team with 46 tackles on defense, including 9.5 for a loss, while Brock Olson CM ‘10 has added 37 tackles of his own, and two interceptions. A big improvement from last season has been the kicking game, as K Chet Corcos HM ‘12 has been 13-14 on kicks on the season. The team will hit the road for back to back games, facing Chapman and then Whittier before coming home to face Pomona-Pitzer in the Peace Pipe game.

The Men’s Soccer team finds itself in a dead heat with Cal Lutheran for the coveted fourth and final spot into the SCIAC championships. Harrison Doyle CM ‘12 has led the team with 7 goals, and teammate Ian Anderson CM ‘10 leads the team with five assists. After three losses in a row, the men finish with two games at home vs. Occidental and Caltech, respectively. They have to hope for some help from Cal Lutheran’s opponents as the Kingsmen currently hold the tiebreaker. The Stags are 7-7-2 overall and tied in fourth at 6-5-1 in SCIAC play. The men will battle Occidental at 4:00pm on Wednesday.

The Women’s Soccer team is the most dominating Athena team at the moment, sitting at 10-2-2 with an 8-0-2 SCIAC record, 2 points ahead of conference rival Redlands. Laura Hagen CM ‘11 leads the team with 7 goals and 5 assists, while Julia Nishioka CM ‘12, Rachel Bunting CM ‘12, and Brittany Pineros CM ‘11 have five goals a piece. Camila Friedman-Gerlicz CM ‘12 has been dominant in goal, allowing .88 a game. After two wins over Redlands, and two conference games remaining, the Athenas have put themselves in prime position to be the number one seed of the SCIAC tournament if they can beat manage a win or a tie vs. third place Occidental and then a win vs. La Verne. The women face UC Santa Cruz for their last regular season home game under the lights this Friday night.

The Volleyball team is 14-12 overall and tied for the fourth and final spot in the SCIAC championships with Pomona-Pitzer at 6-6 in league play. Allie Macy CM ‘11 and Emily Hudson CM ’12 have been dominant up front with 211 and 163 kills respectively while Taylor Jones CM ‘13 has averaged 9.68 assists per game. The story of their season so far has been that in five games matches the Athenas are 1-5. The team has two games remaining, Friday at home vs. La Verne, and then at Occidental next Tuesday for a shot at the SCIAC championship.

The Men’s Water Polo team, ranked fourth in Division 3, lost a hard fought match to Pomona-Pitzer, 9-5. They responded to beat Cal Tech at home, and they sit at 2-1 in SCIAC and 10-11 overall. The aquatic Stags will face off with four straight matches vs. conference rivals ending with No. 1 ranked Redlands. The men will return home to face Air Force at home next Monday November 8.

The Men’s cross country team, ranked 30th in division 3, finished 7th of 30 teams at the UC Riverside invitational last weekend, the best finish of the division 3 teams at the competition. The Stags were able to race against BYU (ranked 12th in division 1), as well as other D1 competition. Kris Brown (JR, CMC) and Brian Sutter (FR, CMC) finished 40th and 47th respectively, leading the Stags. This weekend, the Stags faced off against stiff competition at the Stanford Invitational, featuring harriers from both Stanford and Cal, and finished 12th. Leading the Stags in the 8k were Kramer Straube (JR, HMC) and Brian Sutter.

The Athena harriers, ranked 29th in division 3, finished 14th of 27 teams at the UC Riverside Invitational, also competing against top division 1 competition last weekend. Jenifer Tavé (SO, SCR) finished 44th for the Athenas, with Julia Rigby (SO, SCR) just 5 seconds behind in 49th. This weekend, also facing stiff competition at the Stanford Invitational, the Athena runners finished 16th, led by Tavé and Rigby once more. Both the men and women will head to the West Region preview meet this weekend, which will be a good litmus test for where each team stands versus the best D3 teams in the west.

The Stag Football team came up big in their first home game of the season, beating the Puget Sound Loggers 14-6. QB Scott Yingling (JR, CMC) finished 5 for 14 for 47 yards, but where the Stags did their damage on offense was on the ground. Yingling had 134 rushing yards, including a 24-yard TD run. D.J. Lillard (SR, CMC) had 135 yards on 28 carries and a touchdown in the second quarter. After allowing a second quarter score, the defense clamped down, blocking the Logger PAT attempt, and shutting out UPS from then on. Dan Picciotto (SR, CMC) had a huge defensive game, with 13 tackles, while Landon Patoc (SR, CMC) had the biggest hit of the game, knocking out a Logger wide receiver. The Stags (2-0) had this weekend off, and then will host Occidental this Saturday.

The Stag soccer team (4-3, 3-1 SCIAC) started conference play in strong fashion, going 3-1. In their first conference game, they hosted Cal Lutheran, and two goals from David Taylor (FR, CMC) and Marshall Fisher (JR, CMC), within three minutes of each other in the 26th and 28th minutes got the Stags on the board. After Cal Lu scored in the second half, Harrison Doyle (FR, CMC) answered with his third goal of the season. A Cal Lu goal just before the game ended made the final score 3-2 Stags. Next, the men traveled to La Verne, and were outplayed by the Leopards. La Verne had 14 shots on goal to the Stags 5, and besides an Ian Anderson (JR, CMC) goal, it was all La Verne, which took the game 4-1. Following this performance, the Stags won two 1-0 games in succession at P-P, and then at home vs. Redlands on Saturday to move into a tie with P-P and La Verne for first in the conference. The Stags host Whittier on Wednesday at 4.

The Athena Soccer team has gotten started at an impressive pace. Last Wednesday, goals from Laura Hagen (JR, CMC) and Rachel Bunting (SO, CMC) propelled the team to a 2-0 win at Cal Lutheran. Next up was La Verne, and the Athenas attacked the Leopards with 30 shots and six goals, including two from Bunting. Against Pomona-Pitzer, a 2-1 win, with goals from Giselle Galanto (SR, CMC) and Julie Nishioka (SO, CMC), put the Athenas into a tie with Redlands for first place in the conference, setting up a showdown on Saturday. After being tied 1-1 and heading into overtime, Rachel Bunting’s team-leading fifth goal of the season was the game-winner, giving the team sole possession of first place in the conference. The first place Athenas head to Whittier on Wednesday.

After a 3-5 start, the Athena volleyball team rebounded at home with two dominant 3-0 wins vs. La Sierra and Dickinson, respectively. Their winning ways halted as they dropped their third 2-3 decision of the season to P-P at home, and fell to Redlands 3-1 just three days later. On Saturday at Whittier, the Athenas were firing on all cylinders, picking up their first conference win, led by Jenna Suttmeier (JR, SCR) with 10 kills, and Taylor Jones (FR, CMC) with 38 sets. The Athenas play Chapman at home on Wednesday.

The Men’s Water Polo team sits at an even 6-6 on the season, posting wins in the past two weeks vs. Fresno Pacific, Concordia, and Iona, while dropping two close games to Mt. San Antonio College and Cal Baptist, respectively. The Stags will co-host the Claremont Convergence tournament this weekend, starting Friday with matchups vs. Johns Hopkins and Santa Clara, and then on Saturday vs. Fordham and Fresno Pacific.

The Stag Football team started their season on the right foot, traveling to Oregon and knocking off the Pioneers 22-7. A 95 yard touchdown drive at the end of the first half, capped by a Scott Yingling (JR, CMC) rushing TD, put the Stags up 12-7 going into the break. The Pioneer offense stalled in the second half, while the Stags added a field goal and D.J. Lillard (SR, CMC) touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Andrew Segal (SO, CMC) had 125 yards on 14 carries, and Lillard added 82 yards on 17 carries. Yingling played well, completing 8 of 14 passes for 163 yards, his favorite target being Mike Hirokawa (SR, CMC) with four catches for 101 yards. The men will take on University of Puget Sound at 12 this Saturday at Zinda Field.

Photo credit: Carl Rossi (CMC '84)

The Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams swept the Redlands Invitational this past weekend, giving Coach Goldhammer a reason to smile, as the Stag and Athena harriers did work on conference rivals Redlands and Occidental. On the men’s side, freshman Brian Sutter (FR, CMC) led the Stags with a third place finish, followed by Kramer Straube (JR, HMC) in fourth. For the women, Jennifer Tavé (SO, SCR) and Julia Rigby (SO, SCR) led the Athenas with second and third place finishes, respectively.

After a 3-0 loss at home vs. Cal St. San Marcos to begin the season, the Stag Soccer team traveled to Massachusetts to take a pair of D3 schools: MIT and Babson. Against MIT, freshman Harrison Doyle (FR, CMC) put CMS on the board first, giving them a 1-0 lead at halftime. An MIT goal in the 75^th minute sent the game into overtime, where Doyle tallied another, in the 106^th minute, giving the Stags their first win of the season. Two days later against Babson, the Stags could not find the back of the net, and Babson scored two second half goals, sending the team back to California with a split. Conference play starts tomorrow at home vs. Cal Lutheran.

The 21^st ranked Athena Soccer team, after demoralizing Pac Lutheran 5-1 to start their season, traveled to St. Louis this past weekend. Their first game was against the 20^th ranked Washington Bears, and things looked good as Nicole Sady-Kennedy (SR, CMC) gave the Athenas a 1-0 lead off a nice pass from Giselle Galanto (SR, CMC). Unfortuantely the Athena offense stalled after that point, while WashU scored three unanswered goals, taking the game 3-1. In their second game, vs. Webster college, the Athenas found themselves down 1-0. Not wanting to head back to Claremont without a win, CMS rallied for four straight goals, and the Athenas held on for a 4-2 win. The Athenas wil travel to Cal Lutheran tomorrow to begin their SCIAC title defense, and then host La Verne at 11am on Saturday.

The Athena volleyball team sits at 3-5 on the season, with a number of top 25 teams on their challenging schedule in front of them, including 6^th ranked La Verne, the nine-time defending SCIAC champions. However, the Athena team is hopeful, as they had two close five game losses which could have gone either way, including a 2-3 decision to Texas Lutheran, which knocked off La Verne the following day. Two newcomers are making big impacts for the team. Allie Macy (JR, CMC), a transfer from Concordia University, is leading the team in kills, with 75, while Taylor Jones (FR, CMC) leads the team in sets, averaging more than 8 a game. The women will host La Sierra and Dickinson this Friday at 4 and 7 respectively, before a big matchup against P-P next Tuesday.

The Men’s Water Polo team has had some encouraging results, as they prepare to take on their regional rivals. The Stags began their season at MIT for an invitational. Although holding a two goal lead in the fourth quarter, and then also taking a lead in overtime, the Stags dropped a triple overtime decision to Brown in their first game of the season. They rebounded later in the invitational to knock off Harvard and M.I.T., earning a split on the road trip. The Stags came back to California this past weekend, and dropped three contests to nationally ranked teams, including eighth ranked UC-Irvine, but also picked up a win against La Verne. The Stags will head to Cal Lutheran for a tournament with a number of top teams in the region