Claremont, Calif. (March 4, 2013)—This week in Sagehen Athletics saw a pair of Pitzer athletes help the Women’s Tennis team to two shutouts on its home court.
Women’s Tennis continued its strong start to the 2013 season with a pair of 9-0 wins, defeating Whittier on Friday and Cal Lutheran on Saturday without dropping a set in singles. The Sagehens continued to get strong contributions from its freshman class, as Marie Fleming ’16 moved up to No. 4 singles and earned 6-1, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-1 wins, after taking a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 6 last week against La Verne. She has dropped only six games in her first six collegiate sets, compiling an aggregate score of 36-6. Fleming and Jamie Solomon ’13 also won both of their matches at No. 2 doubles, including an 8-2 win over Whittier and an 8-4 win over Cal Lutheran, while Solomon took both of her singles matches this week to improve to 3-0 on the year.
Baseball defended its home field as well with a key doubleheader sweep of Redlands on Saturday. The Sagehens had a 9-1 lead at Redlands in the first game of the series at Redlands, as Erik Munzer ’13 tallied four hits, before the Bulldogs came back for a 13-9 win. The Sagehens bounced back well, though, earning a tight 6-4 win in the opening game on Saturday with six Pitzer athletes in the starting line-up, including starting pitcher Cameron Yen ’16. Stuart Gano ’13 also threw three innings of shutout relief to get the win, and E.J. Lopez ’15 broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI double in the seventh (Samuel Fox ’15 added an insurance RBI in the ensuing at-bat to make it 6-4).
The Sagehens added a 13-3 win in the nightcap as Coleman Lukas ’14 was 2-for-4 with three RBI, and Lopez was 2-for-4 with two RBI. Ryan Madden ’15 also earned starts in both games of the twinbill and had three hits in the doubleheader (3-for-7) and added a key RBI in the 6-4 win.
Softball also had a strong bounce-back performance by splitting a doubleheader with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, falling 5-4 in the opener and winning the nightcap 5-4. The Sagehens trailed 4-2 in the nightcap, but Ashley Morello ’15 tied it with a two-run single in the fourth before Shannon Julius ’14 scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning.
Women’s Water Polo had four close matches this weekend at Cal Lutheran’s Posada Royale Invitational, defeating Occidental 8-5 and falling 14-12 in overtime to Azusa Pacific, 9-8 to Cal Lutheran, and 10-9 to Villanova. Alyssa Woodward ’15 had five goals in the Azusa Pacific game, and Katya (Katy) Schaefer ’16 added a pair of goals in the Occidental win. The Sagehens will co-host the Claremont Convergence this Friday and Saturday at Haldeman Pool, with home matches at 12:40 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, and 11:40 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Women’s Lacrosse was off this past week, but hosts three home games in the next five days, Monday against Susquehanna, Tuesday against King’s and Saturday against Berry. The Sagehens have 12 Pitzer athletes on the roster, including seven regular starters: goalie Casey Leek ’13, defenders Rachel Kessler ’14 and Zoe Brown ’15, and attackers Emma Molloy ’13, Jana London ’14, Kaitlin Jones ’14 and Aubrey Douglass ’16.
The national governing bodies for Cross Country and Swimming both released their top academic teams this week, and the Sagehens ranked in the top seven in Division III in all four sports. Women’s Swimming/Diving ranked first in the nation with a 3.59 GPA, while Men’s Swimming/Diving was second nationally with a 3.58. Women’s Cross Country, meanwhile, ranked second nationally with a 3.71, and the Men’s Cross Country team was seventh with a 3.57.
