A mix of youthful talent and experienced upperclassmen gave Amherst what it needed to advance to the conference tournament, a feat not achieved since the 2000-01 season. The women wrapped up their season at 15-11-a marked improvement from last year's sub-.500 11-14 finish.
"It felt really great to have made it to where we did this season," said junior forward Katie Latham. "But even though we were so excited to make it to the semifinals it wasn't good enough for us to just make it there, especially because we knew we could have played better and beat Bowdoin."
The women definitely put pressure on the number-one Polar Bears. With tough defense and sharp offense, the Jeffs held the Polar Bears to 36.4 percent (12-33) shooting in the first half. Fighting for the advantage, Amherst held the lead several times in the first half and was tied with Bowdoin five times throughout the half. Unfortunately, the Jeffs could not take a lead into the intermission as they entered the locker room down 21-25.
"It was the little things that killed us in that game: turning the ball over, rushing our offense a little, not taking care of the ball and failing to capitalize on every possession," said Latham. "What especially hurt us, however, was missing box outs down the stretch and letting Bowdoin get too many second chances on their offensive end."
Sophomore guard Jenny Muller opened the second stanza by sinking two free throws to narrow the gap to two. However, this was as close as the Jeffs would get; they couldn't muster enough to match the Polar Bears' intensity for the remainder of the contest.
Bowdoin answered Muller's scores at the charity stripe with an 8-0 run of its own. The rush was enough to give Bowdoin its first double-digit advantage-one which Amherst would never overcome. Still determined to win, junior co-captain guard Krissy Morin buried a three-pointer and rookie guard Shaina Pollack added two field goals bringing the deficit to four. Just as the Jeffs seemed to be closing the gap, the Polar Bears again mounted an offensive attack with five straight points. All told, the hosts outscored Amherst 35-27 in the second half.
"I'm happy that even though we didn't play as well as we could have, we still hung with them and made it a tough, close game," said Latham.
Rookie phenom forward Matia Kostakis led the Jeffs with 14 points and nine rebounds; Morin and first-year forward Stefanie Reiff each added 13 points. Kostakis' performance Saturday was representative of her impressive work throughout the season; she paced the team with an average of 10.5 points per game. She also led the team in rebounds with a total of 254 caroms, an average of 9.8 per game-nearly a double-double.
The Jeffs exit the post-season with more confidence than they entered despite the second-round setback. In the quarterfinal round, the Jeffs surprised NCAA Tournament-bound Wesleyan University. "I definitely think my favorite moment from this year was beating Wesleyan," said Latham. In that game the women proved that they deserved to go to the conference's final four. The week was highlighted by Morin's NESCAC Player of the Week honors for her performance in the win over Wesleyan and was capped by a hard-fought loss at the hands of the Polar Bears.
The young team will only lose one senior-co-captain Kate Herlihy-to graduation, so the squad looks to keep improving in conference play. The squad's youth belies its experience as this year's Jeffs gave some of the nation's best teams all they could handle. Next year, the players hope to improve their record and sharpen their skills: "As a team we've continued to improve every year and next year I'm looking forward to keeping that up and ultimately taking the next step from this year and playing in the NESCAC championship," says Latham. "That's the first step. After that who knows!"