SPORTS NOVEMBER 2, 2018
Sagehen women’s soccer headed to SCIAC championship
IAN POVEDA • THE STUDENT LIFE
Megan Kuo PO ’20 makes a run during the Sagehens’ defeat of Redlands Oct. 31.
NOAH SHAPIRO The Sagehen women’s soccer team (13-3-2, 9-3-2 SCIAC) put on an impressive performance Wednesday, picking up a 4-0 statement win over Redlands to seal a spot in the SCIAC Championship. Peri Cuppens PO ’19 scored twice, including a goal just three minutes into the game, which allowed Pomona-Pitzer to play with a lead all afternoon. Helena Robinowitz PO ’22 scored midway through the
PAGE 9
THE STUDENT LIFE
second to put the Sagehens up 3-0, her third straight contest with a goal. The Sagehens will now host Occidental in the SCIAC Championship Nov. 3. The Tigers finished first in the conference, and beat the Sagehens 1-0 when the two teams met Oct. 3. However, P-P has only lost once in the month separating the two matchups, and will look to carry their momentum into the weekend and avenge last year’s conference championship game loss to Whittier.
Athena volleyball continues to dominate NOAH SHAPIRO The Claremont-MuddScripps women’s volleyball team (25-3, 15-1 SCIAC) extended their winning streak to eight on Thursday with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over La Verne in the conference semifinal. After CMS took the first set easily, the Leopards turned things around, winning the second set 25-23 to tie the match at one. The Athenas then rebounded in the third, winning 25-20, and pulling within one set of taking the match. Up 24-22 in the fourth, CMS needed one more point to end the Leopards season, but couldn’t finish, surrendering three straight points. Suddenly, the Leopards were a point away from forcing a decisive fifth set. La Verne had three chances to send it to the fifth, but CMS responded every time with kills from Jackie Jones CM ’22, Regan Dinovitz CM ’21 and Amanda Walker SC ’20. With the match tied at 27, CMS picked up a kill by Lucila Grinspan HM ’21, and then capped off the victory
with a block by Melanie Moore CM ‘21, who picked up another match-ending point. Cal Lutheran, the only conference team to defeat the Athenas in the regular season, will travel to Claremont for the SCIAC Championship game. The Regals and Athenas will face off at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Stag soccer falls to Chapman in shootout KELLAN GRANT The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss Thursday to the Chapman Panthers, falling in penalty kicks 5-4 in the SCIAC semifinal. The game was a thriller, with neither side finding a way to crack through the other’s defense in both regulation and overtime combined. Chandler Siemonsma, the Panthers goalkeeper, put his team on his back, saving all five shots on goal before the final overtime
whistle and finding a way to block Aidan Johnson’s CM ’19 penalty kick to ultimately win the game. The Stags had a stellar regular season, finishing first in conference play with a 12-2 record. This type of game represented familiar territory for the CMS defense, which now boasts an impressive .220 goals against average. However, their offense stalled up, and the Stags could not find a way to send themselves to the SCIAC championship Saturday.
TALIA BERNSTEIN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Jackie Jones delivers a spike in the SCIAC semifinal against La Verne Nov. 1.
SANDRA SUBLETTE • THE STUDENT LIFE
Kevin Proudfoot HM ’21 takes a kick during the Stags’ game against Chapman Nov. 1.
P-P SWIM AND DIVE
COMMENTARY
Ta’s Timeout: Real Sagehens take first win of the season against Concordia Madrid sacks Julen Lopetegui just in time DANNY TA
After just four months in charge, Real Madrid has sacked head coach Julen Lopetegui, following their embarrassing 5-1 defeat at the Camp Nou against their biggest rivals, Barcelona. Soccer fans around the world reasonably expected this to happen sooner or later. Before taking the Real Madrid job, Lopetegui was the manager of the Spanish National Team. Just before the 2018 FIFA World Cup started in June, when the Spanish squad were already in Russia, Lopetegui was announced as the new Real Madrid manager. Lopetegui was immediately let go by the national team, and began to focus on Madrid. The bar that former manager Zinedine Zidane set at Real Madrid was always going to be too high for any manager to meet. In the span of three years, Zidane led the insanely talented club to one Supercopa de España, one La Liga Title, two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups, and most importantly, three straight UEFA Champions League titles. About a month and a few days after Zidane stunned the football world and stepped down from his managerial position, Real Madrid superstar and five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo signed a four-year contract with Italian giant, Juventus FC. Despite Ronaldo’s departure, Lopetegui entered the job optimistically, hoping that the leadership remaining on the world class side would be enough to carry him to at least half of Zidane’s success. With two World Cup champions, Spanish center back Sergio Ramos and French center back Raphael Varane, serving as the defensive backbone of the European giants, Lopetegui had a good reason to be confident about his team. That’s not to mention that he also had 2018 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner Luka Modric and the Golden Glove winner, Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois. Yet, it was clear from the start that Lopetegui’s desired path to success with Real Madrid was going
to be difficult. His first competitive game in charge was against none other than Spanish giant and Madrid crosstown rival, Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup, a match played between the winners of the Europa League and the Champions League. The game was tied after 90 minutes with Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos getting on the scoresheet for Real Madrid. Atletico striker Diego Costa scored twice as well. Extra time proved to be too much for Lopetegui’s tactics as Atletico Madrid scored twice within six minutes to seal the victory in one of the most intense Spanish matchups of the 2018-19 season so far. Things went from bad to worse following the end of September when the defending European champions entered a run of bad form, consisting of losses against Russian side CSKA Moscow in the Champions League, along with Spanish sides Sevilla, Deportivo Alavés and Levante in La Liga. The humiliation against Barcelona, which consisted of a hat-trick by Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, marked the end of Lopetegui’s managerial term at Real Madrid. The club released an announcement of the decision the day after, also confirming the temporary appointment of Real Madrid B coach, Santiago Solari. Although it is still moderately early in the season, Real Madrid are sitting at ninth place in the La Liga table, in danger of not qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 1997. Obviously, most football fans expect Real Madrid to turn their season around, but questions are now arising as to who will be their next manager and whether or not they will be able to motivate the players and implement the proper tactics. Tottenham Hotspur’s Mauricio Pochettino, the Belgian National Team’s Roberto Martinez, and exChelsea manager Antonio Conte are among the favorites to take the position. More outlandish but seemingly plausible options include ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and current Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho. Times are tough at the moment for Madridistas, but at the very least they can appreciate the efficiency of the club in firing Julen Lopetegui while their season is still alive. Only time can tell whether or not the defending European Champions can reassert their superiority in Spain along with the other Spanish giants. MEGHAN JOYCE • THE STUDENT LIFE
ELINOR ASPEGREN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Mackenzie Cummings PO ’19 swims the butterfly in P-P’s home debut Saturday Oct. 27.
PRISCILLA JIN The Pomona-Pitzer men’s and women’s swim and dive teams took their first victories of the season Oct. 27, taking down the Concordia Eagles in their home opener at Haldeman Pool. The women’s team captured a narrow victory in the meet, winning 159.5-137.5, while the men won 192-60. It was a promising start to the 2018-19 season, in which both teams enter as defending SCIAC champions. The Sagehen men started strong, with three of their relay teams taking first, second, and third place respectively in the opening 400-yard medley relay. Their top team in the event — comprised of Jason Lu PO ’22, Nick Lewis PO ’19, Greg Havton
PZ ’21, and Lukas Ming Menkhoff PO ’21 — won the event at 3:30.50. The second team finished second at 3:35.04, while the third clocked in at 3:40.47, nearly two seconds faster than Concordia’s fastest group. Following that momentum, the men continued to succeed throughout the meet. Kundu took first place in the 50-yard backstroke at a 24.53, followed by Lu who finished second with 25.19. Menkhoff, who won the NCAA Championship in the 100-yard breastroke last year, took first in the 50-yard breaststroke at 26.55. He was followed by Koerner at 27.12. The women’s team took first place in six events of their own. Angela Ling PO ’19 finished first in the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 27.27 followed by Allison
P-P Athlete of the Week
Liu PO ’21, who finished in 29.32. Alexandra Gill PO ‘22, one of the newcomers with a strong performance this weekend, finished first in 50-yard backstroke with a time of 30.52. “Across the board, my times this weekend were very close to my personal best times, so I feel like I’m on track to do well this season,” Gill said. “As a team, we have a lot of hard work and training ahead of us.” On the diving team, Benjamin Willet PO ‘22 won the 1-meter competition with 288.20 points. Emma van der Veen PO’ 19 shone in the 3-meter dive with 244.95 points. Despite the strong start to the season, head coach Jean-Paul Gowdy is focused on the meets ahead. “We try not to use early season
meets as a predictor,” he said. “Swimming is a very end-of-season sport. We define a lot of team success on how things go at the end of the year. I thought we did a good job of building towards the end of the year where everything comes together.” While Gowdy cares deeply about the end of the season and ultimately having both teams repeat their conference titles, he said, for now, the teams are focused on the present. “We are really proud of how we did last year; that took a lot of hard work and a great team,” he said. “We have the ability to do that again, but I don’t want to begin to think about whether we get to the same level. We try to focus on what’s important at this time of year, and if we do that well, I think things will come together.”
CMS Athlete of the Week
Women’s Soccer Sarah Jones
Football Garrett Cheadle HM ‘20 Portland, Oregon
PO ‘19 Clackamas, Oregon Jones was named the women’s soccer SCIAC Athlete of the Year this week, after an impressive season on defense for the Sagehens. Jones is a center defender for the team, and has been an instrumental piece for the team as they have gone 9-3-2 in conference play. The Sagehens have shutout 11 opponents, and a large part of that can be attributed to Jones’ efforts. The versatile defender has also scored twice this year and is a threat on set pieces near the goal. The Sagehens won their SCIAC semifinal game against Redlands 4-0 Wednesday and will play for the conference championship Saturday against Occidental.
Cheadle ran for 274 yards and 3 TDs last Saturday, breaking a 31-year CMS record for rushing yards in a single game. The offensive explosion also brought the junior to 1,100 yards rushing on the year, and with two games left in the regular season, he is the first Stag to run for 1,000 yards in a season since 2002. Cheadle’s performance earned him not only SCIAC Offensive Athlete of the Week honors, but one of the two running back spots on D3football.com’s National Team of the Week. Cheadle will continue his impressive season as the Stags look to clinch the conference for the first time since 1987 against Chapman at home Saturday.