Camille Matonis ’15 helped the Women’s Cross Country team to a fourth place finish at the UC Irvine Invitational, tops among Division III programs (photo by Paul Messana ’17).
The opening week of the 2014-15 season saw strong starts from several Sagehen teams, including a 6-2 mark from the Volleyball team and a strong first race from the Women’s Cross Country team.
Volleyball compiled a 3-1 record at both of its season-opening tournaments, dropping only a five-set match at the Pacific Coast Classic to Whitworth and falling in four sets to No. 14 Trinity at the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational. Ellen Yamasaki ’15 continues to rank among the top players on the team, currently ranking second on the Sagehens with 62 kills and third with 82 digs. Volleyball opens its SCIAC season this Saturday at La Verne, while also facing nationally ranked Colorado College at La Verne on Saturday as well.
Camille Matonis ’15 also started her senior season in fine fashion for Women’s Cross Country, helping the Sagehens to a fourth place finish out of 17 teams at the UC Irvine Invitational (and tops among Division III programs). Matonis was the second-fastest Division III runner at the race in 19:03.9, one second behind teammate Maya Weigel (PO ’17), and placed 14th overall out of 157 competitors. The top eight finishers (and nine of the top 10) were all from Division I power Arkansas. The Sagehens will be in action this weekend at the UC Riverside Invitational, along with the Men’s Cross Country team, which will be running in its first race.
Men’s Soccer also got off to an auspicious start to the new campaign, winning its first two games by identical 2-1 scores over Westmont and UC Santa Cruz before falling to NAIA foe CSU San Marcos. Andrew Lind ’14 helped set up one of the goals in the Westmont win, while Benjamin Mitchell ’18 has been sharing time as the team’s goalkeeper thus far. Chase Abelson ’17 has also earned his way into the starting lineup for the Sagehens in the early part of the 2014 season. Men’s Soccer has two SCIAC home games this week, taking on consortium rival CMS on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and La Verne on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Women’s Soccer is off to a 1-2 start with a 3-1 win over Pacific in its only NCAA matchup against a regional foe. The Sagehens also fell to the University of Chicago and NAIA foe The Master’s College. Sara Ach ’15 has been a regular starter in the midfield, while several other Pitzer athletes have been regular contributors, including Mary Stafford ’16, Nicola Ying Fry ’16, Alyssa Kim ’17, Aminah Luqman ’17, Lindsay Piwinski ’18 and Sofia Barsher ’18. The Sagehens host a non-conference game against San Diego Christian this Saturday at 4 p.m.
Men’s Water Polo began their season with a tough road trip to the Triton Invitational, hosted by UC San Diego, facing the No. 6 (Long Beach State) and No. 7 (UC Santa Barbara) ranked teams in the nation. The Sagehens fell 17-6 to Long Beach and 15-6 to UC Santa Barbara, but Stephen Vint ’15 started off his senior season well with two goals in each match. Bennett Royce ’18 also had two goals in his college debut against the 49ers, while Daniel Diemer ’18 played the second half in goal and had eight saves. The schedule gets even tougher for Men’s Water Polo this weekend at the Inland Empire Classic, as the team faces No. 1 Stanford on Sunday in a match held at Redlands.
Football traveled to the East Coast to take on MIT in its season opener on Saturday and dropped a closely-contested 28-18 contest. Colton Coss ’17 and Robert Ciafullo ’18 were starters on the offensive line, while Andrew Kurtz ’16, Nicholas Urban ’17, Bulolo Jonga ’17 and Isaac Richard III ’15 contributed to the defensive effort. The Sagehens feature 18 Pitzer athletes this season in total.
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This week’s schedule
(home events in bold)
Wednesday, Sept. 10
Men’s Soccer (H) vs. CMS, 4 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 13
Cross Country at UC Riverside Invite, 7:30 a.m.
Men’s Water Polo vs. Air Force, 10:20 a.m. (at La Verne)
Men’s Soccer (H) vs. La Verne, 11 a.m.
Volleyball at La Verne, 12 p.m.
Men’s Water Polo at La Verne, 1:20 p.m.
Volleyball vs. Colorado College, 3 p.m. (at La Verne)
Women’s Soccer (H) vs. SD Christian, 4 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 14
Men’s Water Polo vs. Stanford, 10:20 a.m. (at Redlands)
Men’s Water Polo vs. Concordia, 3:40 p.m. (at Redlands)
