Men's basketball
Coming off of the school's first Final Four appearance, expectations ran high for this year's men's basketball team. Ranked 11th in D3hoops.com's preseason rankings, the Jeffs climbed as high as second on the back of a College record 19-game winning streak. Unfortunately, when such high hopes are not met, great accomplishments are often overshadowed. Although the Lord Jeffs fell in the Sweet Sixteen to the University of Rochester, the eventual national runner-up, their season was certainly not a disappointment. On the way to a 26-2 record, Amherst set a school record for winning percentage (92.9 percent), battled through the NESCAC undefeated, and hosted the NCAA regional finals, both for the first time in school history. The team's success was illustrated by its sweep of NESCAC awards.
The team lost three seniors to graduation, but with a large recruiting class and pre-season All-American Andrew Schiel '05 back in the post, the Jeffs were looking not only to return to Salem, Va., but to win a national title. After beating their first two opponents by an average of 37 points, the entire complexion of the season changed against Clark University. Halfway through the second half, senior co-captain point guard Ray Corrigan went down with a season-ending ACL tear. Though this setback could have effectively ended the team's season, Head Coach Dave Hixon '75 and his squad proved their depth and resilience as Corrigan's capable backups moved up in the depth chart. Andrew Olson '08 stepped in and the team hardly missed a beat, finishing off Clark and winning the first four games with the rookie at the helm.
Coming into the always-anticipated home match-up against archrival Williams College, Amherst owned an 18-1 record but expected a titanic struggle against the team that had halted the last two Jeff seasons. The traditionally close contest was anything but as the Amherst men crushed their visitors from Williamstown, 72-45. As impressive as the 27-point thrashing sounds, the margin could have been much larger as Amherst went into intermission ahead 41-13 and played its reserves much of the second stanza. Big-game player Russell Lee '05 led the way for the Jeffs in the victory. The slaughtering of the Purple Cows was emblematic of the Jeffs' NESCAC dominance throughout the campaign, as Amherst won both the regular season and conference tournament titles. In addition to Olson's rookie honors, Schiel was named NESCAC player of the year and Hixon was awarded coach of the year.
Amherst entered the NCAA tournament as one of the favorites to cut down the nets in the Salem Civic Center, and their first-round game at home showed no evidence to the contrary with Amherst downing red-hot Springfield College, 72-63. Unfortunately for the Jeffs, the second round, though still in the friendly confines of LeFrak Gymnasium, did not match their season's body of work. Rochester beat an ice-cold Amherst in every aspect of the game, but the Jeffs managed to keep the game close until the closing seconds, falling 69-62.
Women's basketball
A team with only one senior rarely leaves a mark, but co-captain guard Kate Herlihy and her underclass teammates did just that. Though the team has been quick out of the gate in recent years, those fast starts have petered out and left the Jeffs without a season above .500 since before the class of 2005's first year at the College. True to form the Jeffs began the season 10-3, but against tradition the team held on down the stretch to claim the fifth seed in the NESCAC Tournament.
The fourth seed and Amherst's opponent was Little Three rival Wesleyan University, a team that beat the Jeffs twice in the regular season and came into the game at an impressive 20-3. The Cardinals' superior resumé did not impress the Lord Jeffs, who went into the Freeman Athletic Center and upended their NCAA Tournament-bound foes. Junior co-captain guard Krissy Morin led the Jeffs with 15 points, including a pair of free throws with 8.8 seconds remaining to ice the game.
The win was only the second all-time NESCAC Tournament victory for the Jeffs and despite the team's loss the next week against top seed Bowdoin College, the season was a definite step in the right direction. Amherst played tough in the strongest conference in Div. III and even had a shot to force overtime against top-ranked Bowdoin in their regular season showdown. Coming off this-their best season in recent memory with four starters returning and only two of them rising seniors-the future looks very bright for the Jeffs.
Men's ice hockey
The Jeffs came into the season with the top three scorers from last year's team back and gunning for more. Although the offensive end of the ice was on solid footing, the Jeffs had some question marks on defense. With two of the three goalies on the roster missing at least half of the season, Head Coach Jack Arena '83 was forced to put sophomore netminder Josh Fillman between the pipes for 93 percent of the team's minutes in goal. Fillman proved to be up to the task, improving on his save percentage and leading the Jeffs to a 13-10-2 record.
Even the already–proven offense provided some surprises as first-year forward Kyle Schoppel scored more points than any other Jeff, save Kretzman, and paced all NESCAC rookies in points on his way to earning NESCAC rookie of the year. Still, Kretzman stole the show. The Edina, Minn., native was among the national and conference leaders in a handful of statistical categories and finished his career as Amherst's fifth all-time leading scorer with 143 points. For his stellar senior campaign, Kretzman earned a slew of awards, including second-team All-America.
The Jeffs translated these outstanding individual performances into a fifth seed in the NESCAC Tournament by virtue of a four-game winning streak that followed a matching four-game slide. Amherst beat Bowdoin in the last game of the regular season, but was unable to repeat the feat the following week in the NESCAC quarterfinals, falling 6-4 in Brunswick, Maine.
Women's ice hockey
The only thing younger than the women's hockey program at Amherst is the current women's hockey roster. With the 11 of the top 13 scorers returning from the 2003-04 season, the program's best ever, the extremely young Jeffs were ready to build on the previous year's success. The team also added a much-needed second goaltender, first-year Stacey Johnston, who split time with Lindsay Grabowski '07 before falling to injury. Despite some highlights, the season did not live up to expectations as Amherst finished the season at a disappointing 8-12-15.
The highlight of the season was the team's 2-2 tie at eighth-ranked University of St. Thomas. Fittingly, both tallies went through the team's leading scorer, defender Rachel Simon '07. Simon was also named NESCAC player of the week for scoring seven points in just two games, including a hat trick against Trinity College.
Amherst finished the regular season as the fifth-ranked team in the conference and fell to fourth-ranked Hamilton College, 6-1, in their NESCAC quarterfinal match-up. Amazingly, the team returns its top 16 scorers, and with another year of experience under their belts, the Jeffs should be back on track.
Men's squash
In a usually predictable sport, the men's squash team bucked the status quo by climbing three spots in the College Squash Association (CSA) rankings over the course of the season. Ranked 14th by the CSA coming into the season, the Jeffs finished 11th in the nation by beating the Naval Academy and Hobart College in the Hoehn Division (for teams ranked ninth-16th in the nation) of the CSA Team Championships.
The victory over Hobart was especially sweet as the Statesmen beat the Jeffs in the same tournament a year ago. In the rematch, Amherst was able to prevail, 6-3, on the strength of victories by top underclassman Auloke Mathur '07 and seniors Gifford Sommerkamp and Brian Lawrence.
In the singles competition Mathur again excelled, reaching the Molloy Division consolation championship match. The sophomore advanced to the consolation finals with a 3-1 victory over Sommerkamp, only to fall to Denison University's Ankur Gupta.
Women's squash
The women's squash team battled through a rollercoaster ride of a season, finishing the season-ending Howe Cup as they came in, 11th in the nation. The Jeffs were led, as they were all season, by senior co-captains Ali Gibbs and Ashley Harmeling who won all three of their matches.
The team's victories over Colby College and St. Lawrence University sandwiched their tournament loss to Cornell University. The following week, Amherst sent two competitors to the Holleran Cup, Harmeling and sophomore Caroline Shannon. Shannon was defeated by the eventual consolation champion, while Harmeling made it all the way to the semifinals before losing to the tournament champion, Lauren McCrery of Yale.
Men's swimming
The men's swimming and diving team rebounded from a 6-3 regular season to earn a third-place finish at the NESCAC championships. Junior Rick Estacio won two events, the 50- and 200-yard backstroke. The former was a pool record and the latter was a meet record.
Ethan Treat '07 joined Estacio at the NCAA Championships where the duo earned a pair of All-American honors. Estacio, making his third-straight NCAA appearance, was an All-American in the 100-yard backstroke, while Treat earned his honors in the 200-yard butterfly and the 400-yard individual medley. The two combined to earn Amherst a 16th-place national finish.
Women's swimming
The women's swimming and diving team went a pefect 10-0 during its 2003-04 campaign, handing Williams College its first loss in 18 years. Although the Ephs handed the Jeffs their only loss this season, the Jeffs swam to their best NCAA finish in team history, fifth, as well as a second-place showing at the NESCAC Championship.
Senior diver Kate Shaw earned second place on the three-meter board despite broken fingers, and several swimmers smashed College records. The first record-setter was senior tri-captain Liz Chiang, in the 50-yard freestyle, who earned fourth place. Additional College records were set by the 200- and 400-yard medley relay teams, as well as by Piper Pettersen '07 and tri-captain Rebecca Stein '05. But the star of the meet was undoubtedly first-year Brittany Sasser. In addition to competing on the two record-setting relays, the first-year phenom won national titles in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events. The former was not only a national championship, but it also broke the rookie's own College and NESCAC records.
Indoor track
As usual, both the men's and women's teams sent representatives to the NCAA Championships, breaking records along the way. The women's team placed third, the program's best-ever finish, on the back of All-Americans Shauneen Garrahan '07 and senior co-captain Carter Hamill. Garrahan took second in the mile while Hamill won her second championship of her career in the 5000-meter run. The two teamed with Hannah Campbell '07 and Ginger Polich '06 to place second-place in the distance medley relay (DMR). The second All-America award of the day for Hamill was the 16th of her illustrious career. The men's team also sent a DMR contingent consisting of sophomores John Babbott and Sam Hayman and seniors Jack Morgan and Mike Page. The foursome claimed third place.