CLAREMONT, Calif. — George Washington University went 1-1 in a pair of away games at Division III No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (11-9 W) and Division III No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (11-4 L) in the continuation of the Colonials’ West Coast trip.
The Colonials opened the day with a slugfest against the Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at Axelrood Pool as the two teams combined for 19 total exclusions with a pair of players fouling out of the game.
George Washington drew first blood in the game as Kira Bruno ripped home the ice-breaker with 7:35 left in the first quarter. CMS responded as Jessica Gaffney found Roxy Kiessling for the equalizer at 5:24, but Maggie Ball floated a pass to Scarlett Hallahan who finished the feed at 4:08 to put the Colonials back in front at 2-1. Kiessling erased the lead, however, prior to the conclusion of the first quarter by lining in a tally with 1:01 on the clock to deadlock the squads at two-all through eight minutes of action.
The Colonials leaned on Hallahan to regain the lead in the dawning moments of the second quarter as she sliced through the Athenas’ defense for back-to-back markers at 7:17 and 6:54, the second coming off an assist from Erin McGeoy, to shove GW out to a 4-2 advantage.
Once again, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps rallied back as Aracelia Aldrete and Kiessling pumped in man-up strikes with 4:14 and 41 seconds remaining until halftime, respectively, to rebalance the scoreboard at four-all. Likewise, George Washington regained the lead as Ball found Ally Jochim with 18 seconds until the break to provide the Colonials a 5-4 margin at intermission.
Jacqueline Bywater padded the spread to 6-4 34 seconds into the third quarter by hooking in a power-play heave at 7:26. CMS, however, answered with Gaffney factoring on both strikes as she threaded a pass to Tess Van Hulsen at 6:46 and finished a feed from Kiessling with 29 seconds remaining to make it a six-all game through 24 minutes of competition.
The hero of the game would prove to be Bywater as she put away five goals over the span of the final eight minutes to provide the difference in allowing George Washington to escape with a two-goal victory.
She put the Colonials in front to stay to begin the fourth quarter by tossing in even-strength (6:13) and penalty shot (4:52) scores to provide GW an 8-6 lead. Tess Van Hulsen responded for CMS with a power-play point at 4:25, but Bywater stroked in her second five-meter penalty shot at 3:17 to make it 9-7.
The Athenas would not go silently into the night as Gaffney curled in her own penalty shot tally at 2:18, but Bywater executed down the stretch in delivering an even-strength score at 2:04 off an assist from Maddie Goodell for the eventual game-winner and dropping in an insurance marker at 1:01 with her third five-meter penalty shot of the fourth quarter to make it 11-8.
Gaffney attempted to push her team back into the game as she connected on a man-up score off an assist from Claire Baxter with 20 seconds left, but the George Washington defense held on over the final seconds for an 11-9 win.
For GW, Bywater led the way with six goals on 10 shots. Jochim chipped in five steals and a goal, while Hallahan posted a hat-trick. Bruno accounted for the remaining goal with Ball (two), Goodell (one) and McGeoy (one) each registering at least one assist.
Kiessling and Gaffney led the way for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps with hat-tricks. Van Hulesn (two) and Aldrete (one) combined to notch the Athenas’ other three goals.
In cage, Katherine Moeller earned the win with nine saves and nine goals allowed. Mariah Mastrodimos suffered the loss for CMS with four saves and 11 goals allowed.
In the day’s late game at Pomona-Pitzer’s Haldeman Pool, the Division III top-ranked Sagehens spread their feathers in building leads of 5-2 and 6-3 at the conclusion of the first and second quarters to outdistance George Washington, 11-4.
For the Colonials, Hallahan found the back of the cage twice with Allyson Bakos and Jochim each notching solo strikes.
The story of the game was the play of Jocelyn Castro and Isabella Villa as the duo deliverd five and three goals, respectively, to account for all the Sagehens needed to garner victory. Nohea Kahaulelio, Chessa Burke and Crystal Huang deposited Pomona-Pitzer’s other three goals.
In cage, Samantha Runyon took the loss with 11 goals allowed and four saves for the Colonials. Morgan Stockholm took the victory with four saves for Pomona-Pitzer.