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Stuart Gano ’13 earned a complete-game win against Redlands to help the Sagehens Baseball team advance to the championship game.Claremont, Calif. (May 6, 2013)—The coming week in Sagehens Athletics will feature plenty of postseason excitement as the Women’s Tennis and Women’s Water Polo teams will both be in action in NCAA Tournaments, while the Baseball team, which is hoping for a NCAA bid of its own, will find out its postseason fate on Sunday evening.
Last week, Women’s Tennis played its way into the second seed in the NCAA West Regional (and an opening round bye) by reaching the championship of the SCIAC Tournament. The Sagehens defeated Cal Lutheran 5-0 in the quarterfinals and Redlands 7-2 in the semifinals, before falling in the championship to undefeated CMS 7-2. Jamie Solomon ’13 and Marie Fleming ’16 helped the Sagehens secure the second seed by scoring singles wins against No. 11 Redlands. The Sagehens will open NCAA Tournament play this weekend against the winner of the opening-round match between Redlands and Whitman.
Men’s Tennis also had a strong showing at the SCIAC Championships with a third-place finish, defeating a pair of nationally ranked opponents in Whittier and Redlands by 5-4 scores, while falling to top-ranked CMS in the semis. The senior doubles team of Max Sabel ’13 and Frankie Allinson PO ’13 won all three matches to reach the 20-win plateau on the year, while Sabel had a huge comeback win at No. 1 singles against Whittier to enable the Sagehens to take a 5-4 win in the quarterfinals. Christoper Wiechert ’14 had the top showing in singles for the Sagehens over the course of the weekend with a 2-1 record, only falling to CMS in a pair of tiebreakers in the semis (7-6, 7-6).
Baseball put itself in position for a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championships with a solid showing at the SCIAC Postseason Tournament, finishing in second place. The Sagehens dropped the opener 14-8 to Redlands, but bounced back with a 5-2 win over Occidental and a 14-2 win in the rematch with Redlands to advance through to the SCIAC finals, where they fell 10-6 to top-seeded Cal Lutheran. Stuart Gano ’13 threw a complete game in the Redlands win to get the Sagehens through to the championship round. In the Occidental win, Jackson Badger ’14 had the tying RBI with two outs in the sixth, and Erik Munzer ’13 had the game-winning RBI with two outs in the ninth. Ryan Madden ’15 had four hits in the first game against Redlands, while E.J. Lopez ’15 had three hits in the championship against Cal Lutheran.
Women’s Water Polo was idle last week as it prepares for the NCAA Championships, but it received some good news in the meantime as the Sagehens swept the top awards in the SCIAC. Katya Schaefer ’16 was named the SCIAC Newcomer of the Year, while Alyssa Woodward ’15 was named to the first team.
