WHITTIER, Calif. (Sept. 20, 2022)- The Poets took on the #1 ranked team in the nation, CMS, in their first conference game of the year, but came away with the loss. 

In the first set of the match, Claremont came out swinging. Coming in with a perfect 10-0 record the Mudd-Scripts looked to continue their dominance on the court. They quickly jumped out to a 10-4 lead. Giving them all the momentum and ultimately taking the set by a score of 25-13. 

The second set opened with CMS holding all the energy in the match and they instantly jumped out to a 5-1 lead over the Poets, but the ladies would not give in that easily. Whittier battled back and got the match to sit at 8-7 in favor of CMS before the Mudd-Scripts went on another little run. After a time-out by the Poets, they came out stronger with better communication to get the score to 20-17. CMS would get to the set point of 24, then the Poets turned up the energy again to take the next three points. Eventually, Whittier would fall 25-22 but the energy in the Graham Athletics Center was in favor of the Poets as they had just come up short. 

Entering the 3rd the ladies were ready to continue to play hard. Senior Della Trimble, opened the serving for the Poets and got them off to a 4-0 lead. CMS would then fight back to even the score at 7-7. The set would then turn into a back-and-forth battle between the Poets and the Mudd-Scripts. In the end, CMS would take the set 25-20 and the match 3-0. 

Despite the final box score being 3-0 the Poets played with fierce energy against CMS. Taking on the #1 team in the nation is no easy task, but the women proved they were up to taking on any opponent. CMS has only lost a total of 3 sets throughout their 11 games and the Poets were able to put up 20 points on them in 2 out of the 3 sets. 

After the game senior captain Lauryn Patrizio, stated with her head held high, "Despite the score, tonight's game is one to be proud of. We've put in a lot of work this preseason and I think it showed in our persistence against CMS. We learned a lot about ourselves and we're pumped to see them again in round 2."

The standout of tonight's game was junior middle Xenia Villagomez, who lead the team in kills with a total of 7 and a kill percentage of .538. 

The Poets will continue their season this Friday the 23rd as they will visit Chapman to take on the rival Panthers at 7:00 PM. They will then battle Cal Tech at home the following day at 6:00 PM in another conference game.