ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Valerie Wraith, Grace Clark, Elise Power, Isabel Del Villar and Caitlin Munoz each scored twice to combine for 10 goals and share Player of the Game recognition as Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) runner-up/Division III No. 2-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges handled host/Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Champion/Division III No. 7 Augustana College, 14-5, in the second semifinal of the 2025 USA Water Polo Division III Collegiate Championship.
Competing at home in the Anne Greve Lund Natatorium, the Vikings (15-9) kept pace with the Athenas (20-10) in the first quarter prior to a 7-2 scoring deficit in the second quarter allowing Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to pull way for another crack at toppling SCIAC Champion/Division III No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps will take on Pomona-Pitzer – which overwhelmed CWPA Division III runner-up/Division III No. 8 Washington & Jefferson College by a 19-6 scoring in the day’s first semifinal – at 12:30 p.m. Central/1:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, May 4, for the 2025 USA Water Polo Division III title. The Athenas will aim to snap a reign of dominance by the four-time USA Water Polo Division III Champion Sagehens as Pomona-Pitzer (2022 – 1st; 2023 – 1st; 2024 – 1st), Whittier College (2022 – 2nd) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (2023 – 2nd, 2024 – 2nd) of the SCIAC are the only three teams to play for USA Water Polo’s Division III championship.
Augustana will seek to add another Third Place finish to the team’s legacy in the program’s fourth appearance in the fourth year of the USAWP Division III Championship as the Vikings will clash with W&J at 10:30 a.m. Central/11:30 a.m. Eastern on May 4 in the Third Place game. .
Following the cancellation of the 2021 event due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Vikings qualified in 2022 (at Pomona-Pitzer, Fourth Place), 2023 (at Augustana, Third Place) and 2024 (at Pomona-Pitzer, Third Place) along with Austin College (2022 – Third Place; 2023 – Fourth Place; 2024 – Fourth Place).
The Augustana-Washington & Jefferson game will be a rubber-match between the two CWPA rivals as the Presidents defeated the Vikings by a 9-8 score on March 28 at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., during the regular season, but fell to Augustana by a 10-7 score in Rock Island, Ill., on April 13 as the home team claimed the program’s third consecutive CWPA Division III Championship (2023, 2024, 2025).
Facing Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the USA Water Polo Division III Championship semifinals for the third time in as many years following prior 20-9 (May 6, 2023) and 23-9 (May 4, 2024) losses at home and on the road at Pomona-Pitzer after taking a 21-13 regular season loss on March 3, 2023 in Claremont in the teams’ first meeting, Augustana never trailed as the Athenas built a 2-0 lead on the way to another title game appearance versus the Sagehens.
Jordan LaCour and Clark staked CMS to a lead it never relinquished as the duo deposited strikes at 7:40 and 4:36 in the first quarter, respectively. Waiahuli Akau (So., Pana’ewa, Hawaii/Kamehameha) put Augustana on the scoreboard by lining a shot across the cage with 2:47 remaining in the opening eight minutes to pull the Vikings back to within one at 2-1.
Munoz (7:31, 4:59) doubled Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ offensive output by pumping in back-to-back markers to begin the fourth quarter. Del Villar (4:29) increased the spread to 5-1, but Charlotte Newport (Sr., Baytown, Texas/Ross S. Sterling) swished a response at 4:14 to close the gap between the teams to 5-2 less than midway through the second quarter.
Wraith (3:21) and Jersey Merrick (Jr., Chicago, Ill./Chicago High School of Agricultural Sciences) (2:09) sowed goals to make the score 6-3 before the duo of Power (1:43, 51 seconds) and Wraith (14 seconds) converted on back-to-back-to-back scoring bids to reap a 9-3 halftime lead for the Athenas.
The offensive onslaught continued in the third quarter as Clark (7:40, penalty shot), Del Villar (4:10) and Jasmine Tang (3:27) capped off a 6-0 scoring outburst by the visitors to burden Augustana with a 12-3 deficit with over three minutes left in the eight-minute frame.
Abigail Gatlin (So., Pearland, Texas/Glenda Dawson) put the Vikings back on the scoreboard by lobbing a man-up shot into the left side of the cage (2:57), but Fiona Murphy (2:29) answered for CMS to set the scoreboard at 13-4 through 24 minutes of action.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps throttled down its offense in the fourth quarter as Akau (7:39, man-up) and Tatum Dwyer (4:17) traded markers for their teams in the waning minutes of the game for the 14-5 final score.
The quintet of Wraith, Clark, Power, Del Villar and Munoz inflicted the majority of CMS’ offensive damage by combining for 10 goals with the quartet of LaCour, Tang, Murphy and Dwyer notching solo strikes.
Winning goalkeeper Mason Spencer (16 minutes, three goals allowed, two saves) and Natalie Stearns (16 minutes, two goals allowed, one save) combined for three saves.
Akau (two), Newport, Merrick and Gatlin combined for Augustana’s five goals to support an eight save performance by netminder Lizzie Pelzman (Sr., Roseville, Calif./Roseville). Susan Palmentera-Reid (So., Chicago, Ill./Lane Tech) played the final 12 seconds of the game.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Division III No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges |
2 | 7 | 4 | 1 | – | 14 |
| Division III No. 7 Augustana College | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | 5 |
| Augustana Goals: | Waiahuli Akau (2); Charlotte Newport; Jersey Merrick; Abigail Gatlin | |||||
| CMS Goals: | Valerie Wraith (2); Isabel Del Villar (2); Caitlin Munoz (2); Grace Clark (2); Elise Power (2); Fiona Murphy; Jasmine Tang; Tatum Dwyer; Jordan LaCour | |||||
| Saves: | Augustana – Lizzie Pelzman (31:48, 8 saves, 14 goals against) Susan Palmentera-Reid (12 seconds, 0 saves); CMS – Mason Spencer (16 minutes, 2 saves, three goals against), Natalie Stearns (16 minutes, one save, two goals against) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Augustana – 8 ; CMS – 4 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Augustana – 2-for-4 ; CMS – 1-for-8 | |||||
| Sprints: | Augustana – 1-for-4 (2nd) ; CMS – 3-for-4 (1st, 3rd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Tiffany Urbanski, Mosaab Omar | |||||
