By the time the 2001 season is over, the women's lacrosse team will have played by far the toughest schedule in Division III. In a schedule that includes six of the top 10 teams in the national preseason poll, last week's three-game slate of Connecticut College, Wellesley College and Wesleyan University is not exactly the toughest segment. That being said, the Jeffs still dominated their way to three easy wins, outscoring the Camels, the Blue and the Cardinals by a combined margin of 45-12 and improving to 8-1 on the season.

Balanced offense and stellar defense would prove to be the two themes of the week, beginning with the 13-3 win over Conn in which three different Jeffs-Co-captain Kristin Osborn '01, Sarah Scheessele '01 and Erin Beaumont '03-each netted hat tricks. Beaumont added two assists, as the Jeffs dominated the 20th-ranked Camels, outshooting the hosts 31-9 and holding a 19-10 advantage in ground balls. Co-captain Alison Kitay '01 paced the stellar defensive effort for Amherst, picking up four ground balls and causing five Camel turnovers, as the Jeffs held an opponent under four goals for the first time in over two years.

"I was happy to see us play with confidence and poise," said Head Coach Chris Paradis. "Whenever you hold a team to three goals, you know you've had a great defensive effort from everybody. We did a much better job pressuring the ball in the midfield, which allowed us to cause turnovers and gain possession in better field position."

The pace picked up a bit in Thursday's game against Wellesley, an NCAA Tournament team in 2000. After taking an 8-2 lead into the half, including three goals from Abby Ouimet '03, the Jeffs broke the game open after the intermission, netting five straight tallies to open up a 13-2 advantage. With most of Amherst's defensive starters on the bench, the game turned into a slugfest down the stretch, as the two squads traded goals for the final 10 minutes of the match. Jenny Rossman '04 scored her first career goal inside the final minute to seal the 17-8 victory for the Jeffs, their highest offensive output of the season. Ouimet finished with a career-high six goals to pace the hosts, with Osborn adding four tallies and a pair of assists, and Scheessele again netting a hat trick.

"Offensively, I thought we played a really good game against Wellesley," said Paradis. "They scored a couple of late goals to make it closer, but we did a good job taking advantage of our opportunities."

After the stellar defensive effort of Tuesday's 13-3 win over Connecticut and the offensive output of Thursday's 17-8 victory over Wellesley, the Jeffs put the two together for Saturday's Little III opener against Wesleyan, turning in their most dominating performance of the season. With Scheessele-who scored her 100th career goal during the first half-leading the way, the Jeffs exploded for 10 goals in the first 30 minutes, while the defense held Wesleyan to just one shot, and no goals.

In the second half, Amherst's reserves took over. Laura Schifter '03 put the Jeffs ahead 11-0 early in the second half, before a scrum in front of the Jeff net resulted in Wesleyan's lone goal of the afternoon, a rocket from sophomore Sarabeth Broder-Fingert. Undeterred, the Jeffs continued to dominate on both ends of the field, with Schifter scoring again and Scheessele picking up her fourth goal of the afternoon midway through the period to push the Jeff advantage to 13-1. Meg Martin '02 added her first goal of the season, and Allison Aldrich '04 converted from the top of the arc to cap the scoring in a 15-1 Amherst rout. The one goal was the lowest total by an Amherst opponent since the Jeffs' 12-1 win over Smith College in April of 1997.

With the three wins, the Jeffs improved to 8-1. The Jeffs travel to Tufts University today, followed by Saturday's match against Bowdoin College.