CLAREMONT, Ca. – The Pomona-Pitzer lacrosse team earned a dominant 18-8 victory over Sixth Street Rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to win their third-straight SCIAC Tournament Championship Title. River Buechner was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player after leading the team in Saturday's victory with four goals, five ground balls, seven draw controls, and one caused turnover. Hannah Gough and Fiona Lewis both recorded hat tricks in the win with Sydney Landauer (2g, 2a) and Shoshi Henderson (1g, 3a) both earning four points. With the victory, the Sagehens earn the automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Tournament, riding an eight game win streak with a 17-1 overall record. 
 
How It Happened
The Sagehens and Athenas squared off for the third time this season, this time with the 2024 SCIAC Tournament Championship title on the line with the winner advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Pomona-Pitzer struck first with a goal from Fiona Lewis just 34 seconds into the contest, but the Athenas responded promptly to tie things at 1-1. Another goal less than a minute later from the Athenas gave CMS a 2-1 lead. Sydney Landauer tied the contest at 2-2 before Chloe Denhart put the Sagehens up 3-2 with a free position goal. The Athenas were able to score the last goal of the quarter to tie things at 3-3 in a tightly contested opening quarter of the SCIAC Tournament Championship.
 
River Buechner scored just over a minute and a half into the second quarter to regain the Sagehens lead at 4-3 but the Athenas responded once again to level the score to 4-4. From there, the Sagehens began to pull away with heavy offensive pressure as Shoshi Henderson, Taylor Glanville, and Fiona Lewis scored the next four goals of the contest to put Pomona-Pitzer up 8-4. The Athenas were able to end the run, scoring two goals in the final 5:29 of the second quarter, sending the Sagehens into halftime with an 8-6 lead. 
 
River Buechner started the scoring in the third quarter, just 29 seconds after the halftime break to make it 9-6. With the rivalry match heating up as both teams battle through heavy defensive sessions, Buechner struck the back of the net again with 3:55 left in the quarter to give the Sagehens a 10-6 lead. Chloe Denhart and Fiona Lewis both scored towards the end of the quarter to make it 12-6 but the Athenas hit a buzzer beater shot to steal some momentum, cutting the lead to 12-7 heading into the fourth.
 
In the final quarter of the game, Hannah Gough scored 31 seconds after the opening whistle before River Buechner scored her fourth goal of the game to make it 14-7. The Athenas were able to cut it to 14-8, but the Sagehens ended the game on a 4-0 run to secure the 18-8 victory with goals from Sydney Landauer, Hannah Gough, and Katherine Lin.